INTERPOL Intrigue
by Persephone Muse
Summary: Former FBI Agent Emily Prentiss is now an INTERPOL unit leader and she finds herself in the midst of an international arts smuggling ring and must worked with British MI-5! In the midst, she is conflicted in a love-triangle with BAU Unit Chief A. Hotchner and MI-5 officer Lucas North. Who will she chose?
1. Chapter 1

**This story is dedicated to my new friend EmilyHotchnerForever! I hope you like this story! **

**It's a love triangle between Emily/Hotch/Lucas. In the end, she will have to choose Lucas or Hotch. We will see who she picks.**

**This story is AU and so the timeline is totally off as Lucas North is out of Russian prison and is now senior chief officer and Emily has been in INTERPOL for about a month.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters belonging to Criminal Minds and MI-5/Spooks TV series. I do own the characters I made up!**

**Enjoy!**

…**..**

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 1

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"Team Alpha, report." Emily called into her microphone. She was inside a nondescript black van monitoring her teams who were inside a warehouse. They were in the process of apprehending a suspected terrorist hiding in a trailer inside the warehouse.

"This is team alpha, we are in front of the trailer. So far there's no sign of activities inside."

"Stand by." Emily ordered. She switched channel and talked to Bravo team who were outside the warehouse.

"Yankee Doll, this is Bravo team. I think our target has flown the house."

Emily rolled her eyes up, "It's flown the coop, Bravo team. Get it right. All right, let's give it ten more minutes and we'll roll in."

"Roger that, Yankee Doll."

Emily flicked the button to off and turned to their computer analyzer and said, "Fanta, I want to know who came up with my call sign."

The bespectacled, tall and boney computer nerd turned to look at her, "I think we all did, Agent Prentiss. It's quite fitting."

"Very funny." She said.

When she first took over the INTERPOL team in London, the agents were quite apprehensive when they found out that not only she was a female but that she was quite young.

They were cordial to her and soon they saw that she was not there because some boss promoted their mistress but she knew her job and she had been out in the field as much as they had been. And she was a former CIA and FBI agent to boot.

Their original assessment of her soon changed when she prove to them she was one of them.

And they liked her.

Her new INTERPOL team was cool.

Of course she missed her BAU team but they were all the way in the USA and she had left them. She did not belong to that team anymore. Emily sighed; she missed them though. Especially _him_.

It always came back to him; Aaron Hotchner. The key element to her pain and torment, and the reason she had to leave.

She couldn't bear it any longer, especially when he decided to move on without her…Beth Clemmons.

She was stunned, to say the least. And yes, there was that twinge of jealousy inside her that painfully pierced her hard.

Much harder than when Ian Doyle stabbed her with that make-shift wooden stake, driving deeper whenever she saw them together during group events.

And it was often as David Rossi, in his infinite wisdom or the beginnings of senile-loaded wisdom, decided that the BAU team should gather more often outside of work to loosen up, and relax.

Relax, my ass Rossi! Emily had muttered whenever she arrived at his 'mansion' and saw Hotch and _her_ sitting together in the sofa. She wanted to rush into the bathroom and barfed up her breakfast and dinner from the night before.

But of course she didn't, the politician-trained by her mother in her taught her better and she played the perfect Emily Prentiss, pro-profiler.

The only two people who saw the real her were Jennifer 'JJ' Jareau and Penelope Garcia. They knew she was tortured inside, to see Hotch openly displaying Beth to the team. And Rossi was all for it! As was Morgan and Reid. Men, what did they know?

Morgan had his honeys and his family up in Chicago and his various housing-flipping projects.

Reid…well, Reid was Reid. Always oblivious to what was before him, which was what made him endearing. And very frustrating!

JJ and Garcia knew her secret; they had cried with her when they saw Beth. They had vented their ire but the bottom line was Hotch was happy, he was smiling again at work. He was getting over his ex-wife Haley and the horror and tragedy of her death.

She should be glad for him, not jealous.

What about her? What about her happiness? Didn't she deserve a little of that?

That was when she knew; it was time, time to leave.

To find herself, she had to get out of the BAU. That job was sucking the life out of her. She was not staying young anymore. When Clyde dangled the INTERPOL job in front of her and an almost carte blanche in the offering in choosing her team, how could she refuse him?

Sure she would miss her friends but she could still see them!

Now, here she was a little more than a month later…

She had her own team and she was quite proud of them.

There were actually five agents.

Senior Agent Samuel 'Sam or Samwise' Mathieu, he was a former British army officer and had worked with the INTERPOL for over ten years. Happily married with 3 children, his oldest daughter expecting his first grandchild, he could be an overprotective with all the secretaries in the agencies, and now he became a protective over Emily when he found out she was single, very single.

2nd Senior Agent Robert 'Bob' Newsome was former Navy officer. Twice married and now a new stepfather to four girls, it was a new experience for him. He was an expert marksmanship with several weapons.

Agent Michael 'Frankie' Frankman had recently married to his primary school sweetheart who was expecting their first child, was an expert sniper and also a martial arts master.

Agent Walter 'Walt' Dressen, former British Army soldier who was an explosive experts had a Masters' degree in chemistry and engineering.

Lastly, the resident geek, Ferdinand 'Fanta' Aquino whose parents were from the Philippines but he was born in England when they emigrated into the country and had live there since. Ferdinand or nicknamed by the team Fanta because of his 'addiction' to the Fanta soda drink, was recruited by INTERPOL when he was caught hacking into their system when he was 12 years old. The agency had offered him two options; jail or work for them. Not to disappoint his parents, he decided to work for INTERPOL while the agency agreed to let him complete his education and later graduated from college at an early age of 16.

His parents had wanted their son to be a lawyer and was rather disappointed when he them he was studying computer technology and linguistics but it was a paid full scholarship with a tenure at the INTERPOL!

A ruse they bought, Fanta saw to that, and now he owed the agency his life but he found his true calling as the agency had given quite a funding to purchase the latest technology to fit his preference of computers, of course under the supervision of several INTERPOL agents.

"Yankee Doll, this is team alpha."

"Go ahead." Emily keyed in her mic.

"Movements around the trailer, repeat, movements around the trailer."

"Copy that team alpha. Is that our target?"

"Negative, Yankee Doll. There are two approaching new movements and they are heading towards the trailer. Do you want us to engage?"

"Standby, Alpha." Emily turned to the young Asian man, "Okay Fanta, who are these clowns that just invaded our field?"

Fanta was typing quickly in to his laptop and shook his head, "No clue, boss. Hang on…patching you to Big Bird."

"Big Bird?" Emily looked at him.

"Mr. Easter, Ma'am." He grinned goofily.

Emily rolled her eyes again. "You guys are going to be the death of me!"

Then she keyed in another button and greeted him. "Clyde, what is going on? We are hunting here and some clowns are trying to take over…do you know who they are?"

_Well, nice to know you care about me. Look darling, I just receive a call from Harry Pearce from MI-5. They are also in hot pursuit of your target. We are to corporate with them fully._

"MI-5? This is total bull shit, Clyde. I need to talk to Ivan Drushskinov, our target has intel on a file..." she was cut off by Clyde.

_Trust me Emily, this is tiresome for me as well. Just work with them. But don't give them too much information. And try to get him back_.

Emily sighed, "Roger that."

Fanta spoke up, "Emily, team Alpha is waiting for an answer."

She keyed her mic to them, "Alpha, this is Yankee…Doll." She winced at her call sign. "We will proceed as planned. We have company, and they are friendly. Copy that? They are friendly."

"Roger that, Yankee Doll. Who are they anyways?"

"MI-5 and we are cooperating with them fully but I want the target."

She heard both teams groaned upon hearing the acronym, apparently they did not much care for the British agency at all.

"Knew it was too good to be true that they won't keep their hands out of the biscuit container."

Emily shook her head, "It's can't keep their hands out of the cookie jar, Bravo team."

"Oh, yeah…that sounds right." He amended that with his heavy British accent.

Emily mumbled "Bloody Brits…"

Several chuckles sounded inside her headset as her team radioed, "We heard that, Yankee DOLL!"

Emily shook her head, "Okay Team Alpha and Team Bravo…let's do it!"

She listened to the sounds of door opening and surprise yelling and a lot of shuffling and grunting.

Suddenly it was quiet for two minutes.

Emily glanced over to her monitor and saw from the outside of the warehouse but not a whole lot of it.

"Fanta, what is going on?"

Fanta began to bounce about his multiple screens and typed more on his trusty keyboard before he shook his head, "Don't know, Emily. Not good, whatever the hell is going on."

Emily looked at him, "I told you, you're too young to cuss. Don't forget your mother ask me to keep an eye on your sorry ass. Yeah, I can cuss but not you so don't make me ration your soda pop usage." She stood up and removed the headset and grabbed her Glock as she checked the cartridge and chamber.

"I'm going in. I don't like this."

Fanta nodded as he sucked on a straw attached to his favorite soda bottle nervously.

She opened the door to the dark van and looked around her, and saw that it was still dark, except for the full moon lending a glow to the warehouse.

She moved quietly to the side door and opened it stealthily.

It was dark inside so she waited for a while to let her eyes adjust.

Then she moved along the wall, sliding as softly as possible. She could hear talking ahead of her.

As she got closer to the trailer, she saw that her team had taken down their target. His hands were bound with the white nylon tie, as well as his legs. He was blindfolded too with a black cloth.

But she saw that her team, all four of them were on their knees, their hands were raised up and behind their heads.

Looking further, she saw a man pointing two guns at her team. He was dressed all in black and he had dark hair, quite tall, too.

A woman was with him, she was blond and also dressed in black.

They were talking softly; British accent. Emily surmised them to be MI-5 agents. But why were her people under arrest? Didn't these two know who they were?

"Lucas, I'll call Harry and let him know the situation." The female said as she turned around and left the warehouse.

The dark – haired man she had called Lucas nodded as he watched her leave.

Emily waited until the blonde left before she decided to take him down.

A minute later, she tucked her gun behind her and inched her way to him and came up behind him suddenly, intending to take him by surprise.

She raised her right elbow up and slammed hard onto the back of his neck, knocking him down, as well as knocking his gun out of his hand, he fell on the ground but it didn't knock him!

_Damn!_ Emily saw that he was turning around as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Her team had turned to look at them and grinned.

The man saw her and charged at her knocking Emily down but she was ready as she went down she straightened her leg in a kick and connected his knee hard.

She grinned when she heard him grunted.

But her grin didn't last long as he lunged at her and punched her hard in the face; the hit knocked her by surprise as the pain blinded her for a moment. She shook her head as she quickly tried to block the pain and got ready to jump back on him.

He was crawling away from her as he tried to reach for his gun.

She fell on him as she wrestled the gun from him as she leaned down and bit his hand.

"OW! DAMN WITCH!"

Her team was laughing hard by this time as they cheered her on.

He was rubbing his hand as she pointed the gun at him, straddling on his stomach at the same time, "Try again and I won't use magic but this gun…and I'm sure it's loaded with real bullets." She grinned.

He arched his brow at her as he gave her an angry look as both were breathing hard from their scuffle.

They then heard the sounds of approaching helicopter.

Emily glanced over at her team as she kept the gun pointing at him.

She jerked her chin up, "Sam, who's coming in from the bird?"

"That would be ours," The blonde had come back and was pointing her gun at Emily. "Let him go."

"Not a chance, blondie." Emily said as she pulled her gun out from her back and pointed it at her now.

"Oh, a good ol' show up like an American Western movie." Her team remarked, the others nodded.

Emily groaned, "It's called a show down fellas …a show down!"

"Oh."

Soon, they heard footsteps' walking stepping in and Emily saw Clyde sauntering into view in his usual casual manner, walking with him was a slightly older gentleman in a suit, he was almost bald but not quite, she can plainly see that he was a Brit.

Clyde stopped short in front of her team members as he stared at her unusual position; quite a compromising one, at that as he arched a brow at her.

The gentleman standing with Clyde was staring at them with a stoic face as he greeted the blonde, "You can put your weapon down, Ros. "

"But Harry…she…?"

Harry looked at Clyde, "Easter? Your turn?"

"Ah yes." He grinned at Emily and said, "As much as you're enjoying your little show, Emily. You must let him go, pet. Fun time's over darling."

Emily looked at Harry who maintained his poker face, then at Clyde who nodded slightly.

She lowered both guns before she pushed off from him and stood up.

The man had rolled around and got up quickly and dusted himself off as he approached Emily and said angrily, "My weapon?"

She arched a brow at him before smacking his gun on his palm and turned away and checked on her team.

"You guys all right?"

They nodded shamefully at her as they apologized, "Sorry boss, we knew they were close by, but we didn't know they got aggressive with us. Wanted us to hand over our target just like that."

"Yeah, after it took us a week to track the sneaky bastard!"

Emily held her hand up, "It's okay fella, we'll get him back soon as MI-5 are through, right Clyde?" She assured her team as she turned to remind him.

Clyde nodded as he turned away from her.

But Emily was not done with him yet as she ran up to him, "Who are they, Clyde?"

"What? Oh…That's Harry Pearce, he runs the MI-5 agency quite proficiently, I should say. Then there's the blonde, Ros Meyers and your friend Lucas North, Senior Officers in the agency under Pearce."

Emily nodded, "I see. And he is definitely not my friend...not even my type at all." She glanced over to theme where the two were talking to Pearce currently.

Clyde narrowed his gaze at her, "Hmm…could have fooled me, pet. I thought you prefer those tall, dark and droll fellas"

Emily giggled out loud, drawing the attention to herself from the three MI-5, especially North who was eyeing her darkly and a little longer before turning his gaze from her.

The blonde, Meyers, turned to look at her then at her colleague for a moment before turning her attention back to her superior, Harry Pearce.

Emily was tempted to give her a few hand gestures; her stand-offish attitudes were beginning to wear on Emily's nerves.

But Emily knew better and decided to ignore them and went to their captive and picked him up.

She spoke to him first in English but he shook his head and did not answer her so she tried Russian and asked him his purpose here in British soil.

He replied to her and Emily shook her head and made him speak slowly which he did.

She talked to him for a while before she stood up and went to Clyde who was now conversing with Harry Pearce.

Clyde introduced Emily to Pearce before he asked her what she had gotten out of her short interview with the captive.

"Ivan is not Russsian, he is Lithuanian. If I understand correctly, he wants to negotiate his terms in exchange for information he has on the files we wanted and MI-5 wanted."

"How did he know what we wanted?" Pearce asked. Lucas North had come to stand beside Pearce at this time.

He turned to his officer, "Please have a word with Drushskinov, he is, according to Agent Prentiss, a Lithuanian. I thought he is a Russian. He wants to negotiate his terms before he agrees to hand over the file."

Lucas gave her a dark look before he nodded to Harry.

"Bas…" Emily uttered angrily at him as she watched him walked away.

"Emily…" Clyde shook his head. "Did he said what files he has in his possession and where are they?"

"He wouldn't say until we agreed first."

"Maybe if we use the right language." Harry arched his brow at her.

"Oh, Emily is quite fluent in several languages, I have faith that she knows what she is talking about, Harry. If she says he is Lithuanian, he is Lithuanian. If you ask me, I wouldn't know the difference from one Russian chap to another." Clyde offered smoothly.

Lucas came back a few minutes later and nodded at Harry, "She's right, he is Lithuanian and he insisted we discussed his terms before he revealed to us where he kept the files."

Emily wanted to smile widely and said out loud; _I told you so_ but she kept her cool and tried to look calm.

Then Lucas turned to her and spoke in Russian and said, "I have not forgotten our little scuffle, Yank."

Emily arched her brow at him and said, also in Russian, "Are you challenging me? I'm up for anything, Brit."

"I don't fight females." He said.

"Why? You're afraid I'm going to beat the crap out of you again?"

By this time, Harry and Clyde had stopped talking and were watching them arguing, even though they were speaking Russian, the two men knew it was not a congenial conversation, as evidence in the anger in the tone of their voices.

"Not at all. You know, I change my mind, I will take you up on your challenge, name the time and place." He said heatedly. They were now almost face to face as they continued with their argument.

Her team was now standing behind her, watching them with fascination.

"Set it up, North. And I'll be there." She let him chose.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

They shook their hands and walked away from each other. Emily stood facing her team as she blew the top of her bangs heatedly.

Her explosive experts grinned and asked her, "So, what was all that about? I didn't know you speak Russian? Is that it? Did you two set up a hot date or something?"

She glared at him, "No. I issued him a challenge. He's to name a time and place, as I'm not familiar with this place yet."

"A fight! Hot damn boss!" Sam laughed. He turned and high-fived to his partner, Robert or Bob. "You will let us know when so we can be witnesses. You need witnesses."

Emily shrugged, "Whatever guys. Come on, let get out of here. I'm thirsty. Who's up for some ale?"

They all whooped at the same time as they hurried out of the warehouse.

On the way to the pub, she received a call from Hotch.

Her heart jumped and skipped a beat or two when she saw his name on her Caller ID on her cell phone.

She answered the call quickly, "Prentiss."

"Emily?"

"Hotch?" She heard his voice and it sounded different, as if he was upset, so she pulled over on the side of the road to give him her full attention. "Hotch, is everything okay?"

"I'm having a bad day."

…..

End of Chapter 1

**Well, let me know what you think? Any interest in this? I'm going to post this in both CM site and MI-5/Spook site.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow! Quite a few reviews! Thank you! And thanks to those who put this on alert and add on, and follow in your list! Awesome!**

**And thank you to GirlOnFire for your review…couldn't thank you personally! **

**.**

INTERPOL Intrigue/Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 2

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Emily and Clyde Easter were in an interviewing room along with Harry Pearce, Lucas North. They had brought their prisoner Ivan Drushkinov into the INTERPOL building, much to the protest of the MI-5 members but Clyde had convinced them that they would get their chance to interview him after their sister agency had its chance with him.

They were watching Drushkinov currently being interrogated by the British Military Intelligence Section 6 or MI-6.

Emily was much more interested in observing Ivan's body language. She was frowning hard at the moment.

"You keep this expression up and it will be permanently etched on you." Clyde whispered in her ears as he pointed at her head.

Emily leaned back and tried to relax until she saw Ivan's hands unclenched his fist and a small grin appeared in the corner of his face.

Lucas North said to Harry Pearce, "Ivan said he kept the files in four disc and they are in the trailer in a safe box."

Pearce nodded, "I'll get Calum to retrieve them at the warehouse." He pulled out his cell phone and was about to press the number to his agency when Emily held her hand out.

"No. Hold on."

Harry snapped his head up at her, "What?"

Clyde arched a brow at her as well, "Really Em, you need to be sending one of yours as well, I should think."

"I think it's a trap." She said as she kept looking at Ivan through the glass panel.

"What are you talking about? He just told MI-6 where it is at, Agent Prentiss." Harry said sternly.

Emily turned her head slowly to look directly at Harry, "Look at his hand, it's clenched the entire time he had been talking to him, right when he divulge the location of the disc, he grinned and then he relaxed his posture and his fists are unclenched."

"I didn't see him grin, did you Lucas?" He looked at his subordinate who shook his head.

Harry turned his head back to her with a sneer, "We will be sending someone to the trailer to retrieve the disc." He made to leave the room but Emily shook her head again as she straightened and faced Pearce.

"Listen, I know you think you know more than anyone here. He is lying. I just know it. I've been working with profilers for over 6 years with the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, and this is what we do, we study their body language and behavior. It is not a science, but yet it is. His entire body language is not meeting his eyes, it's different. I'm telling you, Ivan is lying. The disc is not there, it is a trap."

"Well, then where is it then, Agent Prentiss?" Harry said after a pause."

"I don't know but it definitely is not in that trailer."

Lucas shook his head as he glared at her, "Harry, she is stalling us so her team can be there first. Get Calum before INTERPOL intercepts our disc."

Emily turned to him and said in Russian, "You are a damn fool, Brit!"

He turned to her, "Why don't you go home and play with your dolls, little girl," he replied angrily in Russian back to her.

Emily spun her head to Clyde, "Did we search Ivan?"

"I don't know, pet." He turned to Pearce. "Did you?"

"We didn't find anything. He did not have anything in his possession. His pockets were empty for all I know." Harry replied.

Emily looked into to the glass panel again at Ivan and tried to think about her time at Guantanamo Bay with Jason Gideon and Spencer Reid on her very first assignment with the BAU eight years ago. When they interrogating the terrorist Jind Allah, she had watched the CIA agents conduct daily body search including his…_damn!_

She opened the door and rushed out of the room and entered the interview room and luckily she always carried latex gloves with her, a habit she took with her from her BAU days; you never know what you when you would need it!

And now, thankfully she needed the gloves as she put them on and began to inspect Ivan personally while the MI-6 looked into the double mirror with an exasperated look.

In the other room, Harry stared at Clyde, "What the devil is she doing? She is mauling the prisoner!"

Clyde gave him a nonchalant shrug, "Have no clue but I trust her. Just sit back and wait."

"Sit back and wait? She is wasting our time with her idiotic manners! Where the devil did you find her? This is a mistake, Easter!" Harry continued to rant.

Clyde sighed as he leaned against the wall and observed the window and Emily; he really hoped she knew what she was doing!

Back in the room, Emily finger-combed Ivan's oily hair, looking over his scalp but did not see anything.

Ivan began to smile and Emily saw something inside his inner bottom lip, so she pulled it out and bingo! It was a tattoo set of numbers.

She didn't' have a pen or paper…so she turned to the MI-6 agent and grabbed his pen and note pad and began jotting down the numbers.

And just for good measure, she bent down and looked at his upper inner lip and saw nothing. That was it.

"Thanks Ivan." She said to him in Lithuanian. Ivan frowned as his left leg began to tremble, a sign of nervousness. Emily smiled _gotcha_!

She left the room and came back to the viewing room and stood in front of Clyde and Harry and said, "This are coordinates to a location; latitude and longitude direction. I'd sent a bomb squad to the trailer, not one of your people. That trailer is rigged, I'm sure of it." Emily insisted as she pulled her cell phone out.

"Fanta, I'm reading you a set of coordinates, tell me where this is at." She then read out the numbers to her computer tech.

She waited a few minutes before she wrote the address, "you sure? Thanks, kid." She ended the call and turned to Clyde and said, "Where is this North London Used Car Sales Lot, …?" she read the address.

"I know where it is at, it's about twenty kilometers from here," Lucas said.

Emily nodded, "Well…okaaayy…"She was at a lost when Lucas straightened and stepped away from his stance and said, "Come on, I'll take you to this place." He sighed.

Emily looked at Clyde and grinned, "We'll be back, hold the fort."

Clyde shook his head as he pulled out his cell phone, "I'll call the bomb squad."

"Keep me inform, will you?"

He nodded as he waved her away.

….

Lucas and Emily stepped out of the INTERPOL building and he pointed to a medium sized black car and they walked towards it. Emily tried to open the right side of the door when Lucas said, "Are you intending to drive?"

Emily shook her head, "Hmm? No, not at all, this is your car and I am still not used to driving on the left side and all."

He nodded, "Do you mind then?" he pointed inside where the steering wheel was on the right side of his car.

Emily looked at where he pointed and grinned, "Oh! Right! I thought this is the passenger…yeah…still thinking American…getting adjusted. On the other side…" She pointed and walked quickly over, her face reddened with embarrassment.

They were quiet when he pulled out of the side walk.

She was on her cell phone where Fanta had installed her coordinates so that she could keep track on it.

"So…" Lucas began.

Emily looked over to him as he drove. "So?"

"You have limitations after all." He said.

"What? I don't understand."

"I thought you knew everything but you can't drive around here, so you have limitations."

Enlightenment dawn on her, "It's a small limitation and I'll get around to it when I have time. Right now there is so much going on…"

"Like kicking the shit out of me?" he watched her for a moment before turning his attention to the road.

She laughed, "Was I that obvious?"

He shrugged, "Just a little."

They were quiet as he drove.

"Your Russian is fluent but you're not Russian, there is still a little British accent in your speech in it, did you spend some time in Russia?" She asked him.

Lucas kept his gaze forward as flashes of his tortures in his cell came into his mind…

"You could say that, I did spend eight years there. You can pick the inflection?" He glanced at her.

She didn't see his tormented look as she replied, "Not much just knowing where to pick up. I too spend some time there when I was younger, when my mother was posted in St Petersburg."

He nodded, "Your mother?"

"She is an ambassador, currently in Albania."

He glanced at her again and back to his driving. Both deep in their own thoughts.

"How did you know he was not telling the truth?" He asked her.

Emily turned to look at him and began to explain to him about body language and eye movement, "He grinned when he told him about the disc location. It didn't reach his eyes."

"Just like that?"

She nodded.

"I hope you're right and this is not some wild goose chase." He shook his head.

"This disc, what is it so important?" She asked.

Lucas shrugged, "I'm not sure, Harry insisted it is, and we are to retrieve it, so we retrieve it."

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at their destination.

The sales lot attendant was reluctant to let them in by themselves at first but after they showed him their credentials, he backed away and left them be.

Lucas stared at Emily, "Now what? Which car?" He was starring at over 100 use cars in the lot, they were all parked quite closed to each other, like sardines packed in a can.

Emily held her cell phone out as she looked at the coordinates and followed the beep which was beeping slowly.

"Point and see…" she moved to her left, the beep was non reactive, she move to her right, it was similar.

"This is going to take us all day." He said impatiently.

She turned to him and was about to say something snarky when the beep made a little faster beeping tone, she grinned again, "Bingo! See? Helps to be patient and all." She moved towards the beep as it began to increase until it beeped continuously.

"You just got lucky." He muttered as he followed her.

Finally, they were standing in front of a late model European built classic car.

"Looks like a 1987 Peugeot, four door…don't see these beauties anymore on the road." Lucas was marveling at the very dusty red car in front of them as he ran his hand on the surface.

"Have no idea what you're talking about, how about opening the door?"

He shook his head at her non appreciation for classic vehicle and did as she requested but it was locked. They tried all four doors, they were all locked.

"Maybe we should ask that chap if he'd spare the keys."She nodded to the man who was watching them curiously.

Lucas shook his head as he produce a thin file from his pocket and began to pick at the lock and within seconds, he had it unlocked and grinned at Emily, "It would take too long for him to obtain the key, this is faster."

She returned his grin, "Looks like you have some use after all, Lucky Charms."

He looked at her curiously, "Lucky Charms? What is that?"

She looked at him, "It's a name of a sugary American cold cereal. It's…never mind, it'll take too long to explain." She bent down and scooted into the passenger seat and opened the glove compartment box and looked amongst the papers but there was no disc. She began to look around her.

Popping the trunk, Lucas did the same as he searched inside but there was no disc.

They glanced at each other and shook their heads disappointedly.

He looked at her, "As I suspected, a wild goose chase."

She glared at him, "I'm not giving up, North." She looked at the door of the driver's side and went over and stared closely at the inner panel again. "Do you have a pocket knife or something?" She asked him.

He pulled out a small folded knife and handed it to her and she began cutting the cloth panel that was attached to the metal and began to pull it out. Lucas bent and squatted close beside her and began helping her pull the cloth material out. Soon a big portion came out and they saw a brown envelope taped against the metal side of the door.

Emily smiled as Lucas pulled it out of the side and opened it. Inside, were the four discs.

He pulled them out and fanned them for her and grinned. "Good work, Prentiss."

Emily started; for a moment she thought she could hear Hotch saying that to her and grinned. But unlike Hotch, Lucas did not have any dimples. And his eyes were blue, not brown.

"Agent Prentiss?" Lucas called her.

She shook her head, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just had a 'whoa' moment."

"A 'whoa' moment?" He asked her.

She grinned as they stood up and closed the door and walked out of the lot, "You know, one of those feeling when someone said something and your mind went Whoa! Someone else had said the same thing to you before."

Lucas looked at her and shook his head, his mind once again reminded him of his time in Russia and his prison stint. "No, not at all." He continued to walk on.

Emily watched the back of him, "Well, I did." Then she followed after him to his car.

When they got in, they called into their respective supervisors.

Harry and Clyde were thrilled to hear about the recovery of the disc, Clyde added, "Glad I listened to your instinct, darling."

Emily giggled, Lucas glanced at her, finding it unusual and unique of her but he didn't say anything as he listened to Harry on the other line.

"By the way, you are right again, bomb squad found the trailer rigged with enough C-4s to blow the entire warehouse. It was place under a set of false disc where if you picked it up, kaboom." He said calmly.

She looked over to where Lucas was driving and thought about the man Harry Pearce had intended to send over to retrieve those discs and gave a shiver.

"Well, at least no one was hurt. So all is safe and sound. I'll see you back at INTERPOL, Clyde."

"Right you are, darling. Good job there. MI-5 owes you much. Harry…? He says thanks…he's a little shy now. I'll see you later. Bye love." He ended the call.

Emily ended her call and saw that she had a missed call; she had left her cell phone in the car earlier; It was from Hotch.

_What now?_ She grinned.

She recalled their phone call from the night before; he had a really bad day before, a really bad case…this Replicator, whoever he was, was giving the team a real runaround. She really emphasized with Hotch; being a team leader made her appreciate what he was going through at the moment. Although their mission statement was completely different but the principal remained the same. She, like he, had a team to run. She, like he, had to play politics to her boss while at the same time keep her team happy and away from said boss and performed the best they could at the same time.

When Hotch first told her about the Replicator, her first instinct had wonder if he would he come for her then they began to discuss more about it and decided that she was far and safe. She was not part of the team anymore, she no longer matter. She was out of the loop.

Hotch had assured her that she was safe.

She had liked his soft gentle voice when he said it, "You are in a safe place over there, Emily. He will not come and hurt you."

Emily smiled as she remembered how her heart had fluttered hearing his voice.

Then he finally confessed to her that he had missed her.

He missed her! Now why couldn't he say that before?

She wanted to ask, _what about her?_ _Beth?_

But she didn't want to break that magical spell between Hotch and her.

"Er, we're here, are you asleep?" Lucas had leaned over to her side and looked at her.

She turned to him and shook her head, she was still wearing a soft smile on her face.

Lucas started; he thought she was quite attractive. Admittedly, when he first met her, he didn't pay much attention to her as they were fighting and he was quite mad at her as he thought she had a high-handed attitude and being an American made it worse and intolerable.

But he had spent the better part of the morning with her and so far his view of her had changed and he had been able to look at her closely and he found she was really attractive, more than pretty. And she was smart, strong, quick-thinking and oh heck…beautiful…like Maya…

He frowned, not like Maya but she had her own attractive qualities he had not yet discovered. And he found he wanted to get to know her more.

"North?" She looked at him quizzingly, "You okay?"

He nodded as he got out of the car.

They walked inside the INTERPOL building together and met Harry and Clyde, Lucas turned in the envelope to his superior who in turn gave Clyde his.

"That left the other two," Harry said. "Who gets it?"

"We'll look at it together." Emily said. "Or we ask Ivan. Personally I've had enough of him and his lying ways."

Lucas nodded, "I agree with Agent Prentiss," Harry arched his brow at his agent. "I don't trust him at all either." He glanced at Emily and gave her a small grin.

Emily returned his grin with one and Clyde caught them and shook his head.

"Fine, let's watch it together. I feel like a bunch of kindergarten kids at playroom. Let's share the bloody bucket of Lego blocks!" He huffed out of the room.

"So where are we off to?" Harry asked.

"If you gentlemen will follow me, we have a secure video room, I guess Clyde is waiting for you as we speak." Emily held her hand out as she waited for them to file out of the room.

Ivan Drushkinov had just been taken away by the British guards where he would stand trial for conspiracy to treason to the British Crown; his sentence would be a very long time.

.

…..

End of Chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3

INTERPOL Intrigue/ Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 3

.

Emily did not stay for the video viewing with Clyde Easter, Harry Pearce, and Lucas North. Regrettably, she had to return to her team, they were to leave for another counter-intelligence case.

This time, they had information from a known 'snitch' that an Al Qaeda sleeper cell had been activated. He wanted to meet face to face with her.

Sam, her senior Agent and Fanta, her computer analysis, accompanied her to meet with this snitch, Ahmad bin Kasim.

They were driving to pre-arranged location outside of London, at his insistence. As Emily was still not familiar with the area, she had Sam driving.

"Tell me again, Emily, how did your meeting with the great Lucas North went?" Sam grinned as he teased her.

"You know him?"Emily asked him as she was checking her messages on her cell phone.

"Only rumors, but what I heard was that he is damn good in his field. But somehow he disappeared for eight years, no clue where he went. Many thought he died so when he reappeared many were quite surprised, like a damn phoenix."

"Phoenix?" She shook her head, "Too feminine. More like Lucky Charms."

Sam laughed, "Lucky Charms, yeah…like that. Yankee Doll and Lucky Charms." He shook his head.

"About Yankee Doll," Emily began when her phone buzzed; it was Clyde.

She answered, "Prentiss."

"Where are you? You're supposed to be in the room here, yet I'm alone."

Emily grinned, "Aw, do you want me to hold your hand all the way too?"

"Piss on you Em. Really where are you? That dragon you called your secretary refused to tell me."

Emily chuckled and told him about the Al Qaeda information.

Clyde paused for a while before he continued, "Take care of it ASAP and get back with me. This disc we found…is hot. And not for anyone's eyes but for your former boss, if you catch my meaning."

Emily stopped grinning, "You mean across the pond?"

"That would be an affirmative. Look I can't discuss this on this damn phone and I need to leave for France in an hour."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Get to MI-5 in Thames House. Harry has all the details and the bloody disc." He said.

"After I'm done with my snitch." She ended the call and sighed.

"Sounds like a game of Quidditch." Fanta laughed in the back seat.

"Have no idea what you're talking about, kid." Emily said.

"Don't you read the Harry Potter series? You know the sport for witches and wizards?" Fanta began to explain the fictional game.

Emily looked over at Sam, "Was he dropped in the head when he was little?" She stopped listening to Fanta's rambling.

Sam chuckled as he too had tuned out the young man, "More like his parents depraved him of his pacifier."

Emily shook her head, "Probably both."

…..

They were in a third rate motel room and it smelled of stale smoke, although currently no one was smoking.

Emily thought was thinking about the dangers of second-hand smoke inhalation and how one could contract lung cancer from prolonged exposure; she hoped they would not be here more than an hour or maybe they should start packing masks like the ones medical surgeons wear.

"You are INTERPOL?" Kasim inquired suspiciously.

She nodded as she introduced herself. She had left Sam and Fanta in the vehicle in the parking lot with a listening device.

Kasim was average height, dark-skinned and heavily bearded. His dark brown eyes never stopped moving about him as he jerked his head nervously at every little noise.

"You bring money?" He said in very broken and heavily accented English.

Emily produced a pouch containing a few thick bundles of British pounds. "50,000 pounds as agreed." Emily said but she didn't hand it to him. "Now what do you have for me?"

He began to speak in Farsi which he was more comfortable and told her the location of the cell and how many agents there were.

"How do I know you're telling me the truth Kasim?" She said.

Kasim opened a briefcase and showed her a fax paper, she began to read it and saw the authenticity of it. The fax, also in Farsi, had spoke about key words only Al Qaeda members were known to use them and it was addressed to known Osama bin Laden's step brother who was suspected to be in the United Kingdom but the exact whereabouts had been a mystery. No one knew his family name unless the person who sent the fax was a family member.

"This is real?" Kasim asked, he was biting his fingernails now, his eyes were red-rimmed from lack of sleep or maybe he was afraid to sleep?

Emily didn't want to tell him too much. "What else do you have?"

Kasim raised his brow, "You want more?"

She nodded, "This is not really proof, I mean it's only a fax Kasim. Anyone can send it."

Kasim ran a nervous hand through his hair and looked into his briefcase and gave her brown envelope. "30 thousand pounds."

Emily frowned at him as she took them out and saw that her new friend was telling the truth.

The first one was an old photograph of bin Laden with another Middle Eastern man.

The second picture was a little more current, this one showed the second man in London, he was talking to three more man in a café.

Kasim pointed at two of the three men, "These two are the ones you seek."

The third was not a photograph of an average suburban house, and standing in front of it, mowing the grass was one of the men from the café. The other was seen carrying a sack of grocery heading into the side of the house. She could plainly see the license plate of the car parked next to the house.

Emily nodded, "This looks good Kasim." She said in Farsi."

The middle-eastern man smiled, "you give my money to me now?"

Emily handed the pouch to him as she tucked the photos and the fax into a larger envelope.

"Thank you, good doing business." He nodded and quickly left the room.

Emily did likewise and headed out of the building as she tried to take big gulp of fresh air, clearing the stale smoky air from her lungs.

She hopped into the car and handed the envelope to Fanta.

"Run the plates and the address of the house, kid."

Sam began to pull out of the motel, "Money well spent, boss?"

"Let's hope so. God! I smelled like I smoked an entire carton of cheap cigarettes in a span of one minute."

He grinned and looked over her way, "You do smell like you were soaked in an ash bath, pee-yew!" he wrinkled his nose for emphasis.

"Fanta, get that authenticated," she began. She then look at Sam and said, "When he gives the green light, get with the others and start running a surveillance on the house before we go in."

Sam nodded, "And you, boss?"

"Oh, if you could drop me off to Thames House." She said.

Sam raised a brow," Going to Grandma's house, Goldilocks?"

Emily frowned at him before she realized what he was talking about, "You mean Little Red Riding Hood. Really, you guys need to polish up on your Nursery Stories! You're bastardizing Grimm's Fairy Tales! Goldilocks invaded the three bears' house. Little Red Riding Hood went to Grandma's House and was eaten by the wolf but the woodcutter happened by and cut him down and rescued Red and Grandma whom the wolf also ate."

"Wouldn't Grandma had died, I mean the digestive acid in the wolf's stomach would've killed her. And it is impossible for a wolf to eat a human whole." Fanta pointed out from behind.

Emily rolled her eyes up, "Why me? How did I get stuck with that?"She pointed Fanta with her thumb.

"It's a kid's fairy tale, Fanta! Don't over analyze it. Don't put science and biology with fairy tales. And please! Don't ruin my childhood!" Emily begged him.

Sam was laughing hard as he tried to maneuver the traffic getting her to her destination while listening to the conversation inside; Sam was glad he did not go through with the transfer he had requested a month ago when Emily Prentiss was first introduced into the agency.

He was very much against her position in the beginning but was glad she had proved him wrong!

He had enjoyed the banter she allowed her team when they were on their down time in the office, unlike her predecessor. He was a stickler for needing to look good at all times. It became tedious for everyone and soon affected the team. Half of his team had transferred out of the London location because of their former boss. He came close to being one of them until Emily came. She held a long interview with him and told him specifically what she wanted out of him, and her expectations as her second.

In return, she listened to what he had to tell him about what was lacking in the agency and his expectations for his team.

To his surprise Emily had listened to him and implemented his suggestions for the new team.

It was then that he realized she was the real thing and now, here he was her second in command of the new team.

He pulled over the curb in front of Thames House, 'home' of MI-5 as Emily got out of the car but she turned to look inwards and spoke to Fanta, "Make sure those photos are not shopped either."

"Yeah, yeah…" Fanta nodded absent-mindedly, his eyes clued on the screen.

She shook her head, "Sam, I'll give you guys a call."

Sam raised a hand and gave her a salute, "Roger that, Yankee Doll!"

Emily giggled, "We've got to work on that call sign, that is so not me."

"Oh yes it is. See you around!"And he drove off.

Taking a deep sigh and letting it out she walked towards the entrance of the gray structure.

"Feels like I'm going to the guillotine." She muttered.

….

Twenty minutes later, Emily felt as if she had been stripped searched ten times before she passed through the circular door that led into the sanctum of MI-5.

She stood on the other side of the door and looked around her, the layout was similar like any office; there was a big floor plan of multiple desks filled with agents busily working on their computers. Against the walls were office that housed senior officers but in this case, those offices looked like conference rooms and the center of the entire hub was a large room where she could see their head chief Harry Pearce presided. He was currently on the phone and there was a dark haired woman with him. She seemed to be serious, as he was listening to her intently while on the phone at the same time.

Finally, he saw her as he nodded and hung up the receiver. The dark haired woman turned briefly to look at Emily before she said something. Harry shook his head and stood up and left his office.

"May I help you?" Emily jolted out of her gaze and turned to see a young man with brown hair and a slight flirtatious grin at her.

"I'm to meet with Harry Pearce."She smiled back at him.

The young man turned with a disappointed look when he saw Harry approaching them.

"I see you made it finally." He said with an annoyed tone. He looked over to the young man, "Thank you, Dimitri." The young man slunk away under Harry's dark gaze.

Emily raised a brow; _and a hello to you too!_ "I was on a case. I'm sure Clyde told you that."

Harry nodded briskly and turned to walk away. Emily, she guessed was to follow him, hurried after him.

She was on his tuft and he was playing hard ball with her. _Fine, she was perfectly able to keep up with him._ She thought wryly.

They entered a big conference room with four chairs on either side of a long table and a wide flat screen across from the door.

Harry sat under the screen, the dark-haired woman who came in behind them, sat on his right and waited.

She picked a random chair and sat down; she didn't miss the various tiny cameras placed in the top corners of the room, she knew this meeting would be watched by whomever and recorded for whoever. She didn't care at this point; this place had too much 'cloak and dagger' feel and she wanted to get her disc and leave right away.

Harry sniffed suddenly and frowned, "I hoped you realized this is a non smoking facility."

Emily narrowed her gaze at him at first in confusion than realized quickly that she still reeked of stale cigarette smoke from her earlier sojourn at that cursed motel.

Emily shook her head, "I was in a less than savory location earlier and didn't get a chance to clean up, Clyde had stressed urgency on this situation."She didn't tell him she didn't smoke, why? She didn't know but she felt it didn't matter.

Harry glared at her for a moment and then began by sliding the disc to her. "This disc is actually a classified disc. And it is not for anyone to look at. We have spoken to the Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation as it pertains to his agency. He had agreed that we cannot just send this file via mail. Neither a regular physical courier would be reliable. Since you're involved in this matter, the Director thought you would be ideal personnel to personally deliver this disc to him."

Emily stared at him as she let his words sank in.

"So I'm to be the courier?"

"So it would seem." He said without a smile.

"But I'm in a middle of a pretty tense situation, one where my team is waiting for me as we speak."

"I'm sorry. Clyde Easter had agreed to let me handled this situation as I see fit."

Emily glared at him, "And you saw fit to make me a courier for a dumb disc to babysit all the way to America, to Virginia."

"Yes." He glared back at her.

She gritted her teeth and muttered a series of cuss words in foreign languages; Italian, French and Russian before she stood up with the disc.

"Very well, considered it done, sir. Anything else?"

"As a matter of fact yes, my senior officer will be accompanying you."

"Which one?"She snapped angrily.

The dark haired woman was in shock as she had not seen any one behaving quite rude to her boss and getting away with it! She was wondering why Harry was not chastising her at all. Who was she?

"Lucas North."

"What? Why?" She was really not happy at all.

"He has the other disc and he needed to discuss with the CIA Director." Harry explained.

"Wait a minute, if he is going to Virginia, why not just have him deliver both discs to both Directors?" Emily asked.

Harry shrugged, "This is a requested by your FBI Director, it was out of my hand, Agent Prentiss."

Emily clenched her hands tightly as she tried to compartmentalize her anger in a box and toss it at his face…

"Very well, when are we leaving?" She said in a calmer voice.

Harry looked at Ruth who opened her folder and spoke.

"Tonight at 2030hrs…" she began to rattle off the flight numbers and information.

Emily almost shouted, "Tonight at 8:30? That's not giving me enough time to pack!"

He shrugged.

She took a deep breath and said, "Anything else?"

Harry shook his head, "That is all." Dismissing her.

Emily stood up to leave but Ruth stopped her so she turned to look at her as she read from a note on her pad, "Um…Lucas says that he will pick you up at your apartment at 1800hrs. And he added...um…on the note…that," she then looked at Emily as her face turned red. "Um…that you won't need to try to drive on the wrong side of our streets at all and cause a catastrophe before your flight, remember limitations." She grinned as she handed Emily the note Lucas had written.

Emily mumbled a thank you to her as her face also turned red as she turned to leave the room with the disc.

Harry watched her leave and said to Ruth, "God help Lucas."

"Why?"

Harry looked at her, "They don't exactly get along very well."

Ruth looked after her retreating back, "And yet you sent them off together. I wonder if they will return together or separately."

Harry stood up, "As I said, God help Lucas."

Ruth started to laugh, surprising Harry for the first time. "Let's hope he gives her as hard a time too."

Harry chuckled, an unusual action even for Ruth, "This might turn into an international…crisis."

They were walking out of the conference room together.

"More like a warfare!"

"My god!" Harry shook his head, "Maybe we should have arranged a separate flight for them!"

….

End of Chapter 3


	4. Chapter 4

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**.**

INTERPOL Intrigue/Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 4

.

Sometimes old habits were hard to die; one of them was her go bag.

Always packed and ready to go. Sergio was relegated to her new neighbor who was delighted to care for the rascal as he had been sneaking into her apartment for extra meals. Emily found out about his midnight foray when she noticed he was beginning to fatten up. So, she bough extra food and gave them to her neighbor so he wouldn't deplete her financially. 70 year old Mrs. Gromette was ready to spoil him silly when she asked her if she would watch her pet.

As she palmed her cell phone, she wondered if she should call her former BAU team and gave them a heads-up of her arrival? Would she be able to see them, would they be in town or out in the field?

She decided to not to call, just in case she didn't have the time.

Time…she was none too happy about the entire set up. Her team was currently on surveillance mode, she had the utmost confidence on her second in command, Sam Mathieu. He had also assured her that he would continue to keep her in the loop.

She glanced at her dining room clock on the wall…5:30pm. Half an hour to go, she walked about her apartment as she while away the time. She saw glanced at the picture of JJ and Garcia. She smiled as she recalled when the photo was taken; two years after she had joined the BAU team. It was one of their many girls' night out. She remembered they had gotten so drunk that they had to call Dave Rossi who took them to his house where they passed out in one of his guests' rooms. The bed was big and soft, so soft that the next morning when they woke up, they had the best pillow fight! Resulting in the destruction of Dave's guest room and several torn pillows. There was goose down feathers all over the room and on their hair.

But the best thing was Dave's horrified expression. He saw the state of his room and closed the door and left the house.

Of course the girls spent all of that Saturday cleaning the room as best they could but it was fun.

When Dave came back several hours later, they had vacuumed the room and washed the bed sheets and all. Dave treated them later to one of his famous homemade pasta dinner and fine wine. It was one of the best weekends they had spent together.

The doorbell rang startled her to the present and she moved to the front door and opened it.

It was Lucas North, he seemed to tower over her door as the top of his head barely skimmed the top of the door frame.

"Hi," he greeted her as he looked into her apartment.

She returned his greeting with a nod and picked up her go bag.

"Ready?"

He nodded and stood aside, letting her stepped out of the door. She closed her door, making sure it was securely locked before she moved to the stairs; it was only one flight down and out of the building.

His car was parked right in front of her apartment building.

"Thank you for picking me up," Emily said when he pulled out of her building and merged into traffic.

"You're welcome," He said in his baritone voice which Emily found quite nice sounding, much different from Hotch.

Damn! Would she always compare every man to _him_?

She should stop. It was not fair to Lucas North.

"Harry briefed you about the disc and what it contained?"

Emily shook her head, "No… he didn't."

Lucas frowned, "No? But he was supposed to tell you…"

"Was it important?"

"I'm not sure. In truth we couldn't access the files, it was encrypted. All it said had was your Director of FBI's name on it."

"His name?" She asked.

He nodded.

"Encrypted…why?" She was actually wondering to herself more than to him.

Lucas glanced at her for a moment before he turned to drive. He saw that she had let her hair down; today and yesterday, she had put her hair up. He saw that it looked shiny and he wondered if it was as soft as it looked.

His hands on the steering wheel tightened as he restrained from reaching over to feel her hair.

Her phone buzzed as she answered; he saw that it was from her team. He remembered meeting them from the evening before, they were quite a proficient set of men. And they worked well with each other too. The camaraderie he witnessed amongst them was warm and close-knit. Something he envied in them and wished MI-5 had.

"You're sure, Fanta? I don't want any uncertainty. Sam, whenever you guys are ready, go ahead and roll in. Remember there are three of them and they may be armed." She laughed. "Okay, okay…" then she looked over to Lucas and grinned. "Yes. No. I have to go Sam. Let me know how it went. Godspeed…no, I won't use it. Not until you get me a better call sign."

She then ended the call.

Lucas looked at her, "Work?"

She nodded, "I would have been with them, we found an Al Qaeda sleeper cell of three men about to be activated. We were apprehending them tonight."

Lucas nodded, "What is this call sign you didn't like?" he was curious.

Emily shook her head, "It's nothing."

Lucas turned to look at her, "Come on, you refuse to use it, you can tell me."

She smiled, "It is awful and you will laugh."

"I promise I won't."

"Yankee Doll."

He was quiet for a moment before he his shoulder began to shake and then he chuckled, leading to a full blown laughter; his eyes crinkled as he flashed his teeth.

"Lucas! You promised!" Emily exclaimed.

"I'm sorry but it was …you. Quite fitting. Really. I like it."

She raised an eyebrow at him, "Typical Brit."

"Yankee Doll, yes, it is you."

"Look, just don't use it when we get to Virginia."

He nodded his head, "Provided you'll have dinner with me."

Emily tilted her head and thought; quite a bargain!

"Deal."

He smiled as he got off the ramp entering the airport exit way.

Evening traffic was heavy that by the time they arrived at Heathrow International Airport, they found that they had to rush through security; their credentials and letters helped expedite the process of passing through with their weapons and soon they were on board.

Their flight was crowded and overbooked in the economy class; they would have to reschedule another flight but Emily decided use her mother's ambassadorial status and was able to bump their economic status to first class.

Lucas was duly impressed when they settled comfortably in style on the luxurious leather seats as they reclined and relaxed after their plane took off for an 8 hour flight.

"I have to say, traveling with the daughter of an ambassador certainly has its perks." Lucas grinned.

Emily shook her head, "Don't get use to it too much, I don't usually play that card. It's just that I'm not looking forward to sleeping in the airport lounge overnight."

"Me too. Thank you Agent Prentiss."

"It's Emily or Em. Whichever you prefer. Agent Prentiss is too formal, I think we are past that stage."

"Emily it is. Although I still prefer Yankee Doll."

She groaned, "You're not going to let me off, are you?"

"Not at all, Emily." He gave her a smile that reached in his eyes but he turned away suddenly as his phone which was buzzing, although before he turned from her, he lightly touched her hand, sending tingles throughout her body all the way down her spine! She thought the way he said her name was damn sexy with his British accent, so…Baroque.

Crap! She certainly did not need any more complications! What with Hotch giving her subtle hint of regrets and hopes but…

Here was a man, in the flesh and he had just hit on her! And she was very receptive towards him!

It didn't escape her notice that quite a few women were eyeing at him appreciatively, even their flight attendant, who had came by five times in the span of twenty minutes! To check on them!

She would have been completely blind in one eye and couldn't see out of the other to not notice Lucas North's appeal! And he was sending some very nice signal to her!

Was it any coincidence he was here tonight on this assignment? Did he ask to in this assignment with her?

She stole a glance at him; he was looking intently at his phone. She liked his side profile, very lovely aquiline nose, those lips she wouldn't mind finding out how they feel on hers, nice long eyelashes…

Suddenly he leaned close to her as he whispered, "Keep staring at me like that, Emily, and we might become members of the mile high club." He raised his brow for emphasis.

Emily blushed immediately as she lowered her gaze to her hands and her own phone, trying to keep herself occupied.

Then she realized it was her phone buzzing and she saw that it was a text message from Hotch!

_Broke off with Beth. It was an amicable parting. Can we talk, become more than just friends_?

Emily read the test again just to make sure it was not a joke.

She looked up at Lucas and then at Hotch's text message.

What the hell was she to do?

She almost groaned out loud; a month ago she would have called him right away, butterflies in her stomach and all. Now? She was totally confused.

_King Solomon must be laughing at this moment 'cut her in half! Split her in two!'_

Where about those scientists who had been tinkering with Dolly the sheep? Didn't they successfully clone her? Emily thought of volunteering herself as their test subject.

How was she to reply to Hotch's text message? Ignore it? Or type; Oh yeah, let's celebrate your single status...I'm on my way to meet with you!

She frowned as she continued to stare at the screen.

"Emily…?"

He touched her arm lightly, she almost jumped out of her seat.

She snapped her head at her, "Yeah?"

He pointed at the flight attendant who was holding the menu, Emily glanced at it then at Lucas, "Have you ordered?" he nodded.

She looked at the flight attendant and said, "I'll have whatever he ordered."

She nodded and moved away, giving Emily strange glances.

"Are you all right?" Lucas asked her as he picked up his laptop and turned it on.

She began to pick on her fingernails and nodded, "Yes, just thinking about something."

"Want to talk about it?" He was looking at her.

She shook her head as she looked out of the small oval window but saw her reflection and Lucas' who was studying her.

Her phone buzzed again; it was Sam.

"Prentiss." She answered.

"It's Sam. Fanta authenticated the pictures and they are very real. We are in place across the house. Our three targets are in their house…they are playing video games…Modern Warfare, from the sound of it. How ironic."

"Just keep tabs on them. How's everyone?"

"They miss their Momma," he teased her. "Especially the baby." Referring Fanta.

_Do not! And I am not a baby, Sam. Smarter than you…at least I don't drag my knuckles when I walk._

Emily chuckled when she heard scuffles and yelling in the background as the older guys doing something to the computer tech.

_Leave him alone! Remember he bruised easily, his momma is going to cut your balls if you hurt her baby!_

She heard her weapons expert, Walt Dressen calling out for the others to stop fighting.

"Emily…your dinner…" Lucas said close to her ears.

"Who is it?" Sam asked her on the phone.

Emily turned around and saw the flight attendant had placed a large plate in front of her; Emily's eyes were wide as she stared at the size of the steak on the plate served with creamy risotto and spinach.

"Um…Sam, I have to go…I have to take care of a bovine. Check with you guys later…" She pressed the end button and placed her phone down slowly and started to laugh.

"Something funny?" Lucas asked as he began attacking his dinner with gusto.

"I didn't realize they have a butcher on board." Emily began cutting up her meat.

He grinned, "It's pretty good, quite tender."

"Yeah, I think I can still hear it mooing…did they sliced a couple of slab of meat from a live cow as the plane passed through a farm earlier?"

"I like it this way. Can't stand my meat completely cooked, ruined a good slab of meat." He laughed.

She chewed on a piece and found that it was really good and tender along with the red wine he ordered.

Surprisingly, she managed to finish her steak and when the flight came with dessert she able to enjoy it; lightly drizzled raspberry compote over baked cream cheese served with a side of fresh crème.

And a cup of hot coffee.

Licking her spoon cleaned, Emily moaned lightly as she closed her eyes with satisfaction, "If I die now, I'll be a very happy person knowing I die with a very full and happy belly."

Lucas glanced over her and shook his head, "I have never seen a woman eaten as much as you have."

She grinned, "I was hungry."

"I can see that, if that spoon was edible you would have eaten it as well."

She blushed deeply.

"I just can't get over the fact you'd eaten half a pound of meat tonight."

She shook her head as she did a quick mental calculation and saw with a relief that it was only 8 ounces. Not that much.

"Well, I had quite a good work out the night before," she lightly reminded their brief scuffle the night before.

"Yes, I seemed to remember that I owe you one, don't I?" He said.

"That's right."

The flight attendant came back to take their dishes away and offered them pajamas which they declined.

"PJs?" Lucas arched a brow. "I don't think I'm quite comfortable changing into PJs and nap here."

"What? You're not the PJ kind of guy?"As soon as she said it, Emily blushed heatedly.

He leaned close to her and looked dead in her eyes, "You're a profiler, do you see me as a PJ kind of guy?" He then turned reclined his seat and closed his eyes.

Emily stared at him and slowly smiled, "This is going to be a very long trip."

He grinned in return but didn't reply.

Emily chuckled as she too reclined her seat and closed her eyes and soon relaxed and fell asleep with a grin on her face.

Lucas watched her sleep the rest of the way as he reached over and picked up a strand of hair and found his answer; it was as soft and silky as he thought, very silky…very soft…very nice.

Her cell phone buzzed, he saw she had tucked it between her seat and arm rest. She was still asleep.

He saw on the Caller ID that it was from a Hotch…strange name. And who is this Hotch?

An old boy friend?

He felt a small bit of emotional annoyance akin to jealousy.

That couldn't be; he could not be jealous of her already! _Okay, I like her quite a bit…okay, a lot. A lot more!_

_And now there was another person in her life?_

…

End of Chapter 4


	5. Chapter 5

INTERPOL Intrigue/Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 5

.

When the flight attendant came by to offer Lucas a blanket, he accepted one and draped it over Emily's sleeping form, she didn't stir from her slumber.

Lucas wondered when the last time she really had a good rest as he watched her peaceful expression when her cell phone buzzed again. He frowned as he looked down and saw it was from this mysterious Hotch fella.

_He is going to wake her up!_ Lucas though annoyingly.

Then he did something he had never done before; he picked her phone up and answered it.

"Hello?"

The caller on the other line was quiet.

"Hello?" Lucas greeted annoyingly again.

"I'm sorry, I must have reached the wrong number. Sorry."

"Wait," Lucas stopped the other man on the other line, he noticed he had quite a firm voice, quite authoritative. "You are looking for Emily, is that correct?"

Hotch, on the other hand, was startled to hear a man, a British accented man using Emily's personal cell phone! _What the hell is going on?_

"Yes, I am. I'm a friend of hers. Is she there?" He asked, trying to sound as polite as possible while restraining himself for not asking him why he has Emily's phone. Hotch's first instinct was The Replicator!

"I'm a friend of Emily's too and I'm sorry she can't talk to you at the moment as she is sleeping." Lucas smirked into the phone.

_What the hell IS going on? Is Emily sleeping with…this British man? Why didn't she tell me?_ Hot fire rage from beneath him threatening to rise up as Hotch tried to control his jealousy.

_Has she moved on already? I thought her feelings for me were deeper…or was I reading her wrong all along? Did I hurt her so badly with Beth that she is doing this to hurt me?_ So many confusing thoughts were running through Hotch's mind as he held the phone, he wanted to smash it across the wall in anger as it built up.

"May I take a message for her when she wakes up?" Lucas asked innocently as he watched her.

"No," Hotch said curtly. "That won't be necessary. I'll try again later. Thank you." He ended the call without waiting for Lucas' response.

Lucas held the phone out and looked at it and placed it back near her.

_Well, that was easy. _He said to himself as he turned to Emily and continued to observe her as she slept.

It was only a little after 6pm in Virginia, Hotch was still at the office. He was standing in front of the window looking outside but he was not seeing the scenery beyond.

He couldn't get the thoughts of this mysterious man of Emily's off his mind…and Hotch swallowed hard, _he was in bed with her!_

_How could she? After all the conversation he had with her, she had never given him any indication of another man in her life, what was she playing at?_

He shook his head; _no, that was not her…she would not do that to him, she would not lead him on while she was seeing another man. It was simply not Emily's style_.

_How much do you really know her?_ He asked himself.

He prided himself that he did…he knew her moods, her unique personality and most of all her heart.

_But yet, you let her go…and you met Beth._

_She waited for you all those years while she worked for you, there were plenty of signs out there._

_Oh yes, they were there. _Hotch saw them.

But he couldn't act on those feelings.

Couldn't? or Dare not?

_What difference?_

Oh, a lot. For one, you are such a damn stickler! By-the-damn-book-Hotchner!

You are so afraid you'd get in trouble with the Bureau. _I would!_

Bah! Look at Dave, he's still here, isn't he? All those female federal agents he had dallied with in the past.

"You still here?" Derek Morgan peeked into his office.

Hotch turned around and looked at his dark-skinned colleague, "I could say the same for you."

Morgan smiled, showing off his pearly whites, "On my way out, Good night Hotch!"

"I'll see you in the morning, Morgan." Hotch nodded as he walked to his desk and sat down.

He watch him leave, along with Spencer Reid and Alex Blake. The bullpen was finally emptied and dark.

He remembered back in those days, Emily would usually stayed behind and waited for him till he was done and they would walk out of the building together.

Of course, that was before he met Beth.

He knew he hurt Emily when he introduced Beth to the team. But he didn't want to…

He couldn't get involve internally; he had seen too many men fallen and replaced, never advancing in their position.

_But hold on Aaron, you said you had no desire of advancing, you were comfortable where you were as Section Chief of the BAU._

_Besides, those men that were caught with the proverbial pants down were married, you are not._

_And Emily was most definitely not one of those women that slept around with their bosses, all she was interested was you. It was a perfect pairing! She was a mature adult, as were you. You two were able to handle a relationship if you had wanted to so what had stopped you?_

Afraid?

_Yes!_

I don't know.

_Oh yes you do. And I know what it was…she was too good for you. She was stronger too._

Hotch hesitated; was that it? He was afraid of Emily? She was too strong of a person for him?

Certainly not!

_And she knows you._

Hotch closed his eyes and sighed. Yes, she knew him very well.

It was after his injuries he suffered from George Foyet she had came to see him and found out how he had dealt emotionally. Which was not well at all.

She saw the mess in his apartment; his obsession with getting Foyet. She had stayed to talk to him…no, he amended, she had gotten him to talk to her.

And he talked. And talked. About Haley, Jack, and Foyet…his fear for himself, and his fear of Foyet. She had listened and offered no advice.

When he was done, she left, he didn't ask her to stay. Part of him wanted to but he was afraid.

He was afraid of her, she had a power over him and he didn't like it.

Of course he didn't say it, he was grateful for her comfort but he was also jealous of that power.

And she noticed of the change in him later.

When he came back to work, he tried not partner with her too much; that power she had, he still felt.

Then, Ian Doyle happened. That shook the core out of the whole team. No one in the team had known of her previous assignment and how deep she had gone. How well she had played in the role and delivered him to the INTEROPOL.

She was a true agent, and a damn good poker player.

In truth, he did not know her well. No one knew the true Emily Prentiss. Was there even a real Emily Prentiss? Hotch asked himself.

He shook his head as he opened a file and settled down and began to work on it. He still had a stack to work on before he called it a night.

He would have been meeting with Beth for dinner typically but they had broken off their relationship. He just couldn't lie to her anymore, not while his mind was on Emily.

He was a fool, a damn fool! Why did he let her go? He clenched his hand around his pen tightly.

"Damn fool!" He uttered as he clenched his pen tightly.

"Talking to the file or the pen?"

Hotch looked up and saw Rossi grinning at him as he leaned against the door frame of his office.

"Neither. What can I do for you Dave?"

Rossi raised his brow up at the tone of Hotch's voice, "That bad huh? Strauss or the Director?"

Hotch shook his head, his eyes cast down.

Undaunted, Rossi came inside and sat down, he gauged Hotch's reaction and expression and saw his answer. Nothing escaped Dave's notice lately and lately Aaron Hotchner had been moping about someone's absence.

"So, you miss her. We all do. JJ and Garcia had been skyping her in the evenings."

"Skyping?"

"Skype…video online chat." He explained.

"Oh…Is she doing well?" Hotch looked plainly at Dave.

Dave shook his head, "Look, I know you talked to her, as well as we all had done. So we miss her, there's no shame in admitting it."

Hotch sighed, nothing could escaped him. "Yeah, I do. I tried to call her earlier."

"And?"

"She is…"Hotch shrugged his shoulders.

"What? She is not answering? She's probably on an assignment." Hotch shook his head with a sad look.

Then it dawned on Dave and he almost grinned at the younger man.

"Oh, she is seeing someone already?"

Hotch nodded.

"And you're giving up, just like that?"

"Dave, he answered her phone and said she was sleeping." He finally owned up.

Dave's eyebrows shot up, "Oh! I see. In that case… you know to be fair to her, you have Beth and she is move on."

"Beth and I…we broke off this afternoon over lunch. I told her it was not fair for her and that I …my feelings were not on her but that was before the phone call."Hotch took a deep breath and let it all out.

Dave nodded his head slowly.

"Affairs of the hearts…it's so complicated. I have never figured it out, still never have, and probably never will."

"That is why you're married three times, and why I never ask you for any advices, _Mon_ _Capitan_," Hotch stare at him.

His best friend grinned at him, "Touché!"

…..

It was past midnight when their plane touched down in Washington D.C.

Emily was awakened when the pilot made his announcement to welcome everyone to the United States.

"Feeling refreshed?"Lucas asked her.

She smiled and nodded, "As if I had slept for over 12 hours! Anything exciting happening? Did you nap?"

He shook his head, "I rested enough."

"Okaaaay." She stretched it out.

As they were in the first class section, they were able to leave first and since they did not have any luggages checked in, only their go bags, they did not have to go through the tedious baggage claims sections like many other travelers.

However they did have to past through customs and they were taken to a special section for law enforcement personnel. A customs officer checked their credentials and weapons before they were allowed clearance.

As it was very early in the morning, the airport was not terribly crowded so Emily was able to obtain a rental vehicle fairly quickly.

"Do you remember how to drive here?" Lucas asked her teasingly as he got into the passenger seat, ironically on the right side of the car.

"Lucas, I was only gone over a month, of course I remember how to drive."

But the mischievous part of her overcame her and she teasingly and deliberately drove on the wrong side of the road, after she made sure there wasn't any traffic around them, almost scaring him as he gripped the dashboard hard and stared at her with a horrifying look on his face.

She shook her head when she corrected the car and drove normally as she merged into the freeway and drove onto Virginia, giggling at him.

"That was really not funny at all, Agent Prentiss." He glared at her.

She peeked over to him, "I thought it was. Come on Lucas…you need to lighten up. Say it was funny."

Finally he gave her a grin, "Childishly." Was all he commented.

"I'll take it."

They checked into Hyatt Regency Hotel and went to their rooms on the top floors.

"I'll see you in the morning for breakfast?" She asked him.

He nodded, "Yes, I'm to meet with the CIA director at 9am."

"I'll take you to him. So, 7:30am?"

"Sounds good, Good night…morning Emily." he nodded to her as he opened the door to his room.

"See you later, Brit." She disappeared into hers and shut the door.

Emily placed her bag on the bed and looked about the room.

It was a standard hotel room with your typical mirror and desk on one side of the wall with wifi connection, and a chair and table, and a closet with a hidden dresser /TV cabinet, and a mini fridge and bar. A double wide bed and the bathroom on the far corner of the room.

She went to her bag and took out her oversized tee shirt she used for pajama and went to the bathroom and took a quick shower.

When she came out twenty minutes later feeling refreshed, she took her cell phone out and checked for messages.

Her team had sent her texts, informing her that their targets had retired for the night; that was two hours ago. And the team was also down for the night, they wished their 'mother' good night.

Emily smiled at the message as she padded around the room bared feet toweling her wet hair dry as she scrolled her phone down and saw that she had received two phone calls from Hotch… and one was answered by her? She checked the time… it was while she was on the plane. What was she doing on the plane at that time? Sleeping, she tried to recall where the phone was…Lucas!

Emily closed her eyes briefly and opened them; she was upset…no angry was more like it!

He must have took her phone and talked to Hotch! How could he? That was too…too personal! She wondered what they talked about?

Without thinking further, Emily grabbed the hotel key card and dashed out of her hotel room and to the hall ways and knocked on his door firmly.

He couldn't be asleep yet.

A moment later, he opened the door and Emily's mouth opened but nothing came out as she saw his bare chest…well not bare…the tattoos on his chest…and all thoughts of what she wanted to say to him fled her mind…

.

End of Chapter 5


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you guest reviewer: GirlOnFire for your wonder review!**

**And to all who added this story on your alert/follow and add on; Thank you!**

**.**

INTERPOL Intrigue/Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 6

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"Come in Emily," Lucas said softly and she did. He closed the door with a quiet click as he pressed his hand on the door frame before he turned around slowly. He knew she was looking at his bare back. Well, his tattooed back.

She spoke in Russian, "You were in a Russian prison? For …eight years?"

He nodded before he turned to look at her.

She did not look at him in the eyes, she was studying his chest.

"Ancient of Days by William Blake." She said as she looked up at him. "You're an admirer of the artist."He nodded his head, surprised that she recognized him and the artwork on his chest.

She then walked up to him, "You were off the grid for eight years…all that time you were in a Russian prison and they did this to you…you survived the system. No man survived this long and kept his sanity, how did…?" She saw another of his tattoos on his back, "While I breathe, I hope."

He didn't say anything as he let her eyes roamed all over him.

"They branded you as a thief. That was your undercover ruse?" she asked him.

He nodded, flashes of horrifying memories of tortures came back as he remembered what they had done to him, what he endured; those daily electric shock treatments…

"Lucas." She called to him quietly.

He shook his head as he grabbed her wrist and said curtly, "Don't. I don't need your compassion or your pity." He said roughly.

She frowned, "I am not."

"I see it in your eyes, profiler." He spat.

"You're wrong, Lucas," her eyes flashed angrily at him. "You went through a horrifying ordeal and survived, I understand. I do not pity you at all, I'm sure you've had your evaluation and all and passed or you won't be here in this position with MI-5. Harry Pearce apparently has the utmost confidence in you as a senior officer."

He released her hand and nodded, she saw pain crawled past his face.

"You're damn brave, Lucas North. I don't think I would have survived it at all."

He looked closely at her, "I think you would. You have that strength in you not many people have, Emily Prentiss."

"Thank you." She smiled tentatively. Then she realized he was not completely dressed as he was actually wearing a bath towel wrapped low around his waist! Her face instantly blushing red as she looked up at him and shyly said, "I...I'll get back to my room now…I see you're not dressed..um, crap! See you in the morning, Lucas." She tried to open the door but he stopped her by holding the door closed.

"Just give me a moment, I'll put on something. Don't leave." He padded to the bathroom and closed the door.

Emily looked around her and shook her head, her face was still feeling heated from her blushes.

He came out of the bathroom, dressed now in a white generic Tee-shirt and sweatpants, his feet were still bare and his hair damp.

"So…what can I do for you?" His entire earlier demeanor was gone, here was the Lucas North she knew before she saw the tattoos, before she knew he had been to the Russian prison.

She frowned as she tried to remember why she was in his room in the first place, oh yeah…

She held up her cell phone, "You talked to a friend of mine, Hotch." She didn't ask him, there was no point in doing so, she knew it was him.

And he didn't deny it as he told her that he wanted to let her sleep uninterrupted and the repeated buzzing of the cell phone would have woken her up. He was thinking of her.

"I do apologize for being presumptuous, Emily. I hope I did not cause a problem for you and this Hotch? Who is he, your…boyfriend?" He asked innocently.

Emily shook her head, "No not at all. He was my former boss in the BAU team."

Feeling very relieved and trying not to show it, he said, "Well, I'm glad. But he did seem quite anxious to reach you."

"It's a complicated matter and I don't know how to answer him at the moment."

"Well, I am sure at the moment he is sound asleep as it had gone past one in the morning." He said.

She nodded, "And I'm sure you'd want to get to sleep as well, I'll get back to my room." She turned to leave again.

But he stepped around to face her and said, "Can you stay? I mean if you're not too tired, jet lag and all."

Surprisingly she was not feeling tired, she realized that seeing Lucas' body works and his past had shaken her still and how it had somehow reminded her of Ian and his little 'gift' left her a wound up.

"I'll stay until you get tired, and then you can kick me back to my room." She said.

He smiled, "Agreed. Um…" he looked around. "Pick a place and get comfortable. Drink?"

"Whatever you're having." She moved over to the double bed and set on the edge and saw that she was wearing her oversized pajama Tee that came to above her knees when she sat down.

Lucas was looking into the mini 'fridge and picked up two water bottles and came over and handed her a bottle as he came over and sat near her on the bed.

Thanking him, she opened it and drank about a third of it.

"Thirsty?" Lucas inquired when he saw her drinking thirstily.

"Traveling always makes me thirsty." She explained.

Then there was an awkward pause as they stared at each other.

"You said earlier that you don't pity me, what do you mean by that?"

Emily was startled by his question; she certainly didn't expect him to pick that remark from her.

"I meant that I knew where you came from, I can relate your pain," she said.

"How so? Did you also spend time in a prison?" He was intrigued.

"In a sense, you could say that. I was undercover for INTERPOL. I went too deep, I thought I would never get out of it." Her eyes were looking far away, Lucas saw.

"Was it the Ian Doyle case?" He asked.

She snapped back to the present immediately and looked at him, "You knew about Ian?"

He nodded. "MI-5 always had interest with the IRA factions."

"But Ian was no longer with the IRA, he went rogue a long time ago."

"Doyle still had friends and enemies of the IRA."

Emily stared at Lucas, "You were part of the mission that hunted him?"

He nodded.

"I almost got killed in that mission, his man had suspected I was one of yours." She gave him a hard stare.

"It was not an intentional sabotage Emily. We didn't know you were working undercover."

She sighed, "It didn't matter, it's over and it's in the past."

He nodded.

She asked more of his body arts and the significance of them, he told her that most of them had signified his stature as a thief and his duration, and words of encouragements for himself, a reminder that all was not lost. Then he told her how Harry Pearce had worked on a prisoner exchange with a Russian prisoner the British has in their prison for many years.

"Do you still have nightmares?" She asked him.

He looked at her, "Do you?"

She smiled, "Sorry."

"No, I should apologize."

Emily yawned as her eyes began to droop, she had slid down and laid on the bed, "I should go to bed…"

He looked at her and smiled, "Yes, you should."

But she was already asleep.

He stood up and grabbed a pillow from the other bed and laid it down on the carpet between the two beds and lay on the carpet, having taken his Tee shirt off as he fell asleep; all the talks of his prison days brought back reminders and he became uneasy at falling asleep on a soft bed. The hard floor was more to his liking as he also drifted off to restless dreams of being back in his the cell and the electric shock treatments…

Emily was jerked awake from her deep sleep by a masculine shout!

_Nyet!_

Who the heck was in her room? And speaking in Russian?

Emily set up in the dark as she tried to adjust her eyes.

She heard it again, the male groaning again in agony and severe pain.

"I am not telling you anything!" Again, it was in Russian.

This time Emily recognized Lucas' voice, it sounded torturous and raspy.

Why was he in her room? She wondered as she looked again and realized that she was in his room and must have fallen asleep in on the bed but where was he at?

"I told you!" He shouted and then grunted in pain as if he was being hit.

Emily followed his voice and looked down and saw him on the carpet!

"What the…?" She got down to where he was at and knelt by him.

She thought at first he had fell off the bed but she saw that he never slept on it in the first place and stared at him further and it dawned on her; all the talks of his prison spending time must have awakened something deep from within him and his deep conditioning and habits had caused him to resort to sleeping on the hard floor! Her heart went to him and the ordeal he went through; by God! What hell he went through!

She knew he was deep asleep and that it was dangerous to suddenly rouse him up, so she reached over and slowly rubbed him on him on his back gently.

She noticed with relief that he was out of his deep sleep but he was still muttering.

She began to talk to him in Russian softly, "I'm right here, Lucas…it's okay. Shhh…go to sleep." She lightly stroked his cheek.

"Elizabeta," he uttered.

Emily frowned; who is Elizabeta? A girlfriend? Couldn't be a wife as he was not wearing a wedding band.

"I'm sorry we didn't work out…" he continued to say in his sleep.

Emily swallowed hard as she continued to rub his back.

Soon he was quieted and calmed.

And when she saw that it he was safely asleep, she got up and grabbed a sheet off the bed and draped it on his body and left the room quietly and returned to hers.

She saw that it had gone on almost five in the morning. Setting the room alarm, she tried to catch a couple hours' more before she dealt with whatever the next day…well later that morning's situation would be.

As she closed her eyes, Lucas's face came to mind as she fell asleep.

….

End of Chapter 6


	7. Chapter 7

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 7

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9am Emily dropped Lucas off at the Central Intelligence Agency or the CIA in Langley Virginia and drove to the FBI building in relatively easy traffic.

Her meeting with the Bureau Director Robert Cranston was waiting for her. Taking a deep breath, she walked into his office and took a seat.

"Good morning Agent Prentiss," he greeted her. Director Cranston was like any other Bureau man, in his 50s, peppered hair, and bespectacled. He seemed officious to her.

"Good morning Director," she returned.

"How are things in the INTERPOL?"

"Quite well and busy sir."

He looked at her, "I'm hearing good things about you, Agent Prentiss, since you'd transferred. Good representation for us at the Bureau." He nodded but he didn't smile.

"Thank you sir."

"What can I do for you?"

She set the disc down on the table and explained briefly how she came about the disc and why she was here.

"This disc has my name in it?" She nodded. "And it is encrypted?"

He picked it up, "Is it safe to put it in a computer? And get a cryptologist to crack it?" he asked her.

"I'm not sure sir. CIA director received one too. MI-5 officer Lucas North is delivering it to him as we're speaking."

He looked at her and leaned over to his phone, and dialed a number, a direct line to the CIA Director, William Foster.

"Will, it's Bob."

_Hey Bob! You have a visitor from across the pond? MI-5?_

"Actually she's Bureau agent now working at INTERPOL in London. Will what is this about?"

_I have no idea. My people haven't been able to access the file._

"Well, I have not gotten a look at it yet. Get back with you later."

_Okay Bob_.

Cranston ended the call.

"I guess we'll see about the encryption. How long are you hanging around here?"

"Am I to stay here?"She asked him.

"I think you and your MI-5 officer should. Until the discs cleared from both CIA and here."

"Yes sir." _Great, more delay with her team!_ Emily thought.

"Leave your cell number with Ellie outside, I'll call when I have something." He mentioned his secretary.

Emily stood up and nodded, "Yes sir."

She left his office and left her number as he indicated with his elderly but friendly secretary.

As she stepped outside the Director's office, she thought; she had free time, she could pop over to the BAU office and check into the team and surprise them!

Grinning she took the elevator two levels down.

And stepped out of the carriage and a sense of home hit her as she looked at the familiar frosted glass double doors.

She pushed them opened and saw JJ in her office, the usual mile high stack of files on her left side of her desk. In front of her were pictures of Will LaMontagne, her freshly minted husband and Henry. The new wedding photo framed and displayed proudly. And Henry when he was a newborn, held by his godparents; Penelope Garcia and Spencer Reid.

She grinned as she watched her bent head and leaned against the door frame of her office, "When are you going to clear that damn stack of files that's been sitting there for months?"

JJ jerked her head up in shock and squealed out loud, jumped out of her chair and hopped around and pulled Emily in a big bear hug.

"OH MY GOD! What are you doing here?" JJ pulled her away so she could see her best friend as she wiped her eyes carefully, grinning,

"I'm on official business, just meeting with the Director." She indicated upstairs. "How're you doing?"

"I'm good! Missing you! You?"

"Busy with my new team. But doing good, too."

JJ smiled happily and pulled Emily with her to Garcia's den, "You know she will want to see you."

Emily groaned happily, "Braced your eardrums!"

And sure enough, after JJ tapped the numbers to unlock the cipher locks to open Garcia's computer lair, and the currently bright pink bespectacled technical analyst spotted her other best friend, an incredible loud piercing squeal erupted from her so much so JJ and Emily covered their poor ears to prevent from busting it as Emily was tackled into another big bear hug.

"Gosh! I love you too, PG!"

"OH MY GOD EMILY! When did you come in? Why did you not tell us you're here? How long will you be here? Are you here alone? How was London? Did you get me anymore Princesss Diana memorabilia? Did you meet Prince William and Kate Middleton? It's okay if you meet Harry too, he is just as gorgeous, Oh my gosh, Emily, did YOU meet any tall dark and handsome British hunk while you're there?" Garcia finally ran out of breath and was taking in more air and breathing hard as JJ and Emily were laughing hard.

Emily shook her head, "Let me see, came in late last night, that is why I didn't call. I didn't know if I get a chance to see you while I'm here on official business with the Director upstairs. And I don't know how long I'll be here, depends on the Director, and no I am not alone. I'm with a senior officer from MI-5. London is great, just like last month when you were there, no I didn't get a chance to get you more memorabilia as this was a spontaneous trip. And no I didn't get to meet any of the royal family members because our line of work doesn't cross theirs and yeah, I met someone. And he is tall dark hair and dashing but we just met so still tentatively don't know what is going on yet. And he is definitely British with a gorgeous British accent."

JJ was giggling.

"There, does that answer all your questions?"

Garcia eyed her annoyingly, "I hate it when you hit all my questions right on. You and your damn photographic memory…profiler crap and all. Don't laugh, Jennifer Jareau. You've become one of them too. So annoying." She turned her back at them.

JJ mouthed at Emily as she pointed at herself; me too?

Emily nodded silently.

"Don't think I didn't see that, you two." Garcia groused.

Emily hugged her from behind, "You know I missed my favorite tech analysis."

Garcia smiled as she patted Emily's hand.

Emily looked at Garcia's trolls collection, "I see you put British Bull in with your lot."

Garcia grinned as she picked up a troll with red and blue wild hair but wearing a Union Jack apron, a gift from Emily before Garcia left London with Morgan after they had helped her unpacked when she had moved there.

"Come on, I want to meet the boys…and the new gal, Alex Blake."

JJ nodded and opened the door for her.

Emily shook her head and shoved her blonde friend out with her as they all walked out to the bull pen. JJ and Garcia in front, Emily behind.

They approached Reid's desk who was in the middle of working on a file, Emily quickly grabbed a cup of pencils from a nearby desk and began tossing them all at Reid' s desk.

A few of them hit him on his head

"Hey guys, cut it out!"

JJ and Garcia waved their hands out to show him they were not the culprit when three more pencils flew from behind the two girls and hit Reid right square on his face.

"Ow!" he rubbed his face as JJ and Garcia separated revealing Emily standing in the middle.

"Hiya , kid!" She greeted him, arms opened wide.

Reid's face was of pure surprise and thrill as he jumped off his seat and went into Emily's arms immediately as old friends, brother and sister hugged for a while.

Emily, misty eyed whispered in his ears, "I missed you much Spencer and I'm sorry about Maeve."

Reid, teared as well nodded into her neck, "Thanks Em, I missed you too."

They separated as they looked at each other closely and nodded.

"You okay?" She asked him, her eyes sending him more than one signal.

Luckily Reid knew what she meant, "I'm handling it as well as can be Emily. And yes, I will call if I don't."

She nodded and turned to see pearly white teeth smiling at her as he grabbed her in a ginormous T-Rex sized hug!

"Derek!" She laughed heartily as she smacked him on his back. "How are you?"

"Em! Doing really good! Shot any bad guys?"

She pulled back and whispered, "Last count, 35 bad guys."And walked up the ramp on her right side. She turned to see Morgan's stunned look.

"35? That many? In one month. Emily! What do you mean 35?" He asked as he watched her entered Dave's office while she waved at him, teasingly.

Morgan had turned to the others, "I don't get it, she really shot 35 or she caught 35? Which is it?"

JJ and Garcia shook their heads, JJ said to Garcia, "He's been hanging out with the genius way too much."

Alex Blake was looking up at Emily disappearing into Dave's office and said, "So, that is Emily Prentiss, huh?"

JJ smiled at Blake, "Yup that is her."

Emily was watching Dave Rossi working at his desk.

"Hmm…all work and no play makes Dave Rossi a boring man," Emily grinned.

Dave glanced up and grinned as he stood up and came around, "_Cara mia!"_

He came up to her and kissed her on both cheeks and hugged her tightly.

"How are you Dave?"

"Missing you like hell, my dear!" he said sincerely. "Especially him." He jerked his head in the next room.

Emily arched her brow, "Beth?"

He shrugged, "I'm not sure anymore. He wants you and her…but…"

She nodded, "He can't decide. And he wants it all."

"Something like that. Have you talk to him yet?"

She shook her head, "In a bit."

"You're not scared, are you?" he watched her eyes and saw with satisfaction that she was no longer who she was over a month ago.

"No, those demons are pretty much gone, Dave."

"I'm glad for you Emily. His is not. Just gotten bigger."

"Yeah I heard about this Replicator."

"That is what we called him."

"I thought we don't name UnSubs." Emily frowned.

"He knocked on our doorstep and left a big calling card. We didn't appreciate it at all. Strauss is on edge, the Director is on edge. We are on a watch at the moment."

"Do you know who this Replicator is, any idea?"

"Not a clue but he seems to know us pretty well."

"He? You're sure of the gender and is it just one UnSub?" Emily was on full profiler mode.

Dave shook his head, "Everything is indicating a male and yes, one UnSub, we estimate him to be mid 30s to late 40s, white male."

Emily nodded.

"…Dave, can you see about the…" Hotch stopped mid-sentenced as he paused, staring at Emily.

"Emily…hi, didn't expect to see you here. Are you well?"

Emily nodded as she stared back, looking at him all over, "Yeah Hotch. As well as can be."

Abruptly, he turned around and left Dave's office.

Emily looked at Dave, her expression was one of stunned, so was Dave.

"Well, I dare say you left him quite speechless."

"No kidding…I'll see you later." She left without waiting for his answer.

Dave shook his head, "Like I said, affairs of the hearts, don't mess with that anymore, I'll let them deal with them and pick up the pieces. Or maybe not…" He went back to his desk and his work.

She entered his office and saw he was standing by the window looking outside as was his habit.

Emily closed the door quietly.

"Hotch." She said.

He turned around and looked at her, his eyes were haunted and sad.

She swallowed hard and said, "The phone call last night…"

"You don't have to explain, Emily. It's your life, I shouldn't have expected you to wait for me."

"No! You're mistaken. We're on a plane, I was asleep on the plane. Lucas answered so I won't be awakened. We were on the way here Hotch."

"Oh" The relieved looks on his face spoke volume and Emily smiled, he smiled. His dimples deepening.

"I'm sorry I should have…"

Emily shook her head, "It's okay. Lucas apologized. He didn't mean to answer my phone."

"Lucas? He is…"

"Senior Officer of MI-5. He accompanied me here to meet the CIA Director while I met with our Director."

"May I ask why?"

"I'm sorry Hotch, it's er…a sensitive situation and I don't think I'm allowed to discuss it."

"That's okay Emily. I understand."

She nodded.

She looked at him carefully and saw that he was wearing a new suit and…

"Nice tie, all silk it looks like. I like the color too." It was a subdued maroon with dark blue strips diagonally. Emily knew it was a pretty expensive silk tie.

He hesitated and said, "It's from Jack, a Father's Day present." He didn't meet her eyes as his cell phone buzzed and he took the call by the couch.

Emily frowned as she took his words.

She moved around his office as she waited for him.

She looked at his wall and saw that not much had change, the decorations were the same, then she glanced over at his usual meticulous desk. Most of his files were straightened as usual neatly in a pile on the left. The blotter on the center of his desk and clock and the picture of Jack through the years and she spotted a new one…and her heart stopped.

There was a 5x7 picture of Beth hugging Jack on one side of a picture case and another one was Hotch and Beth looking they smiled at each other, his dimples were deep and his eyes were crinkled with happiness as he looked at her.

Emily swallowed hard; he had told her he had broken off with Beth yesterday and he wanted a chance with her…her, Emily.

But she was looking at his desk where pictures of Beth were still displayed. While he worked, all he did was looked up and saw Beth's face and be reminded of her. Was this the looks of someone who had broken up with his girlfriend?

She thought cynically that if she were to break up with a guy, the first thing to go was pictures of him, she would definitely not want to see his face again! She picked up the picture of Beth and Hotch and placed it on the blotter and while his back was still turned to her, she slipped out of his office and left hurriedly down the steps.

"Hey Emily!" Reid called to her. "You must check out 'A Conspiracy of Faith' by Jussi…hey leaving already?"

"Yeah, Um…gotta go, got a phone call from my team in the INTERPOL I have to take it outside, I'll talk to you …give me a call. Bye guys!" She raised her voice. "Hey, Alex Blake, Welcome to the BAU, don't let Reid play his silly homemade chemistry sets. Morgan, I'll let you know when I hit 100 next month! Later guys!" She pushed the double door hurriedly and thankfully an elevator opened up and she stepped in and pushed the button and waited impatiently for it to close.

Finally the doors slid closed and she leaned back against the wall and sighed with relieved.

No sooner, her cell phone buzzed. She saw that it was Hotch and she hit end, sending it to voice mail.

She couldn't deal with it now! She was not going to cry, not for him, not now.

She stepped out of the elevator as soon as the door opened and walked out of the lobby area. It was busy and it took her mind off and she looked out of the doors and out of the FBI building.

Her phone buzzed; Hotch again.

Damn!

"Agent Prentiss!" She looked about her as she heard someone calling her name.

As she turned around, she saw her. Beth Clemmons was standing near the entrance of the FBI building.

_What now?_ She muttered.

"Hello, can we find a place to talk privately?" Beth said.

…..

End of Chapter 7


	8. Chapter 8

Thank you Guest reviewer **GirlOnFire**** and ****Justtojoke (Guest)**

**And to all who put this story on your favorite, alert, follow and add on! Thank you!**

.

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 8

.

"Hello, can we find a place to talk privately?" Beth said.

Emily nodded as she looked about her; the opened courtyard outside the FBI building would provide the ideal talking place for them. She did not want to talk to her in an intimate location like a café or restaurant which was exactly what Beth had in mind.

Emily walked to a spacious wide decorative cement bench and sat down, leaving some space for her, she turned to watch some pigeons pecking on crumbs on the grounds while she waited on her.

She didn't watch Beth's reaction but Emily knew she was none too happy about her choice of a public locale.

Having no choice, Beth sat down after she made sure the cement was relatively clean of dirt and what not.

"How are you Emily?" She began when Emily did not say anything.

Emily nodded, "I am well Beth." Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she hit a button.

Beth bit her bottom lip as she realized Emily was not making it easy for her. So she tried again, "Aaron said me you're working in London now, it must be very exciting to work in a foreign country."

Emily nodded.

"But then, your mother is an Ambassador, isn't she?" Beth continued smiling.

Emily smiled back, not sure where this was leading to and she was not liking the direction of this conversation at all.

"Beth…what are talking about?"

"Talk? Oh, silly me, I just want to let you know that Aaron told me all about it and the reason you transferred to London was that you a slight psychological break and they need to move you from the BAU team in order for you to recover."

"Hotch told you that?" Emily asked her incredulously.

Beth nodded. "Oh I know he told me in the strictest confidence and all. But don't worry, this is between you and me…and well Aaron of course." She teetered.

"Of course." Emily nodded.

"I mean, he told me that you had been through a really rough patch with that Ian Doyle man and that you nearly died! I mean you did but the doctors revived you and all that but it was so scary! You went through such a traumatic ordeal. I can't imagine it and Aaron said he personally put you into hiding after that. He was in such agony when he had to make that decision alone." Her hands were wavering about her as she talked enthusiastically.

"And when you came back, you had your bad days, he told me all about it. Your talks with Aaron, I feel so bad for you Emily!" She then reached into her purse and pulled out a business card and handed it to Emily.

"I spoke to a friend of mine, he is a psychiatrist who is very good in dealing with people who had gone through trauma. He is very good at what he does Emily. You should give him a try, Aaron is a good listener but you need a professional. Here, take it, I told him about you, of course in the strictest confidence."

She stood up, Emily did as well, "I'm going now. It's really nice chatting with you. I wish we had more time to do so but I'm meeting Jack for lunch at his school. I'm volunteering there in the afternoons. He is such a wonderful kid. And we simply get along so wonderfully. Well, gotta go. Have a wonderful trip back to London Emily!" She waved to her and walked away and disappeared into the crowd of people entering and leaving the FBI building.

Emily sat back down as she stared at the business card.

"Emily." She looked up and saw Hotch standing in front of him, holding his cell phone.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out hers and pressed end on her phone.

When Hotch had called her again, she had pressed 'talk' on her phone and allowed him to listen to the entire conversation.

He came over and sat next to her. "I'm really sorry. I…"

"You don't have to explain, Hotch." She said quietly. "I really have nothing else to say."

"Emily please listen to me, I did not tell her, she must have saw your file…"

"Of course, in the strictest confidence." She laughed thinly as she looked up and stood up.

Then she spotted Lucas approaching them; there's one person who was not pretentious…

He smiled at her when he saw her.

Hotch turned to look at who she was smiling at and he narrowed his gaze and began to assess the new comer.

"Hi!" Emily greeted him happily.

"Hi to you too."

"Why didn't you call? I would have come by and pick you up." She offered.

Lucas shook his head, "It's no problem, I took a taxi who graciously offered to take me on an extended tour to the Washing Monument and the White House but I had to decline the friendly taxi driver. I thought I'd meet you for lunch." He looked at her expectantly and then he realized she was not alone as he turned to look at Hotch.

Emily jerked a little bit as she hurriedly to introduce each other, "Lucas, meet my former boss BAU unit chief Aaron Hotchner. Hotch, this is Lucas North, senior officer of MI-5.

They shook hands firmly as they nodded.

Just then Emily's phone buzzed again and she answered; it was Clyde Easter.

_Darling! I presumed you're in D.C.?_

"Yes I am, Clyde." She answered.

_Are you with North?_

"Yes, what's going on, Clyde?"

_Your Rus..Lithuanian friend decides to talk and he wants to talk to you and North only. Get to a secure video conference patch and dial in with MI-6 HQ. They are waiting for you. It's about the bloody discs._

"Roger that, Clyde." She ended the call and turned to Lucas.

"Lunch is on hold Brit. Ivan wants to talk to us ASAP in private." She turned to Hotch, "Can we use Garcia's office, Hotch? We need a secure video patch via MI-6."

Hotch nodded and they began to walk back to the FBI building, Hotch and Emily vouching for Lucas' visitor status.

As soon as they entered the BAU office, they went into Garcia's lair. Emily quickly introduced a very stun Garcia to Lucas before she explained to her what she needed from her.

Efficiently as usual, Garcia patched them into MI-6 conference room and soon they were seeing Ivan Drushkinov.

Emily turned to Hotch and Garcia and asked them to leave as this was a confidential meeting for her and Lucas and the prisoner.

Eyebrows rose on Hotch's part, he reluctantly agreed to leave while Garcia mouthed to her, asking her to call her as soon as she could about Lucas.

Lucas in the meantime was eyeing at Garcia's massive troll collection and other eccentric décor in her office with confusion.

They sat down in front of the screen as soon as they were alone.

Speaking in Lithuanian;

Ivan began, "Ah! So, you have not luck in opening the files?"

Emily nodded, "Are you going to tell us the key code, Ivan?"

Ivan smiled, "What are you offering? Your lovely body?"

Lucas stood up instantly as he felt offended on her behalf, "Have care! She is a lady!"

Emily held him down while Ivan began to laugh.

"I was merely having fun with such a beautiful American woman."

"The key code Ivan." Lucas demanded calmly.

"Very well, it is very simple. The key code is American 010101."

Emily wrote it down quickly and looked at the screen, "Is that it, Ivan?"

He nodded and smiled, "Yes, pretty American, very easy."

"For both discs?"

He nodded and held out two fingers, "For two discs."

"Thank you Ivan."Emily nodded at him.

Lucas asked him, "Ivan why are you helping us?"

He shook his head, "Not helping anyone. Just pretty American woman. She is very nice to Ivan all this time. We come from separate culture and religions, she respected mine, the rest here have laughed and made fun of my God, do not allow me to pray my God. Very disrespectful, but pretty American woman is not like others. I like her. _Aciu, thank you_"

"You're welcome, Ivan."

And the feed was disconnected.

The screen was now set back to the FBI logo.

Emily and Lucas began to call, one to the FBI Director and the other to the CIA Director and informed them of the break on the file.

Emily also called Clyde and told him about what Ivan had revealed.

Lucas called his superior Harry Pearce and gave him the latest update as well.

They then set down and looked at each other and waited.

"You've made an impression on Ivan." Lucas said.

She shrugged, "All I did was show compassion."

"Be careful Emily, show too much of it and that will make you too vulnerable." Lucas cautioned.

She nodded, thinking of the conversations she had with Hotch, all those private conversations that were no longer private.

Her cell phone buzzed, startling her out of her reverie; it was Clyde.

_Emily. The key codes are bloody real. The Director of the National Security Agency is placed on administrative leave immediately upon further investigation from CIA and FBI. Long story short; he has been indicted on selling secrets to China and South Korea, it's all in the discs. Good job to you and North. Come on home babe."_

Emily stood up and turned to Lucas and told him what Clyde had said. He stood up too and they left Garcia's office and stepped into JJ's office.

"Hey! You're back and with a…wow…!" JJ was staring openly Lucas.

Emily grinned as she introduced Lucas to JJ.

"A pleasure to meet Emily's friend." Lucas said as he shook her hand.

JJ smiled, "Oh, the pleasure is definitely mine, I assure you Lucas."

Emily shook her head, "Don't mind her Lucas, she is very happily married with a kid."

Then Garcia came in smiling, "Well hello again, friend of Emily's!" She greeted Lucas again, grinning from ear to ear.

Emily shook her head, "Thanks for the use of your office, PG"

Garcia waved her off casually, " Anytime I can help. So, Lucas…lovely name by the way."

"Thank you, Garcia…it is Spanish but you are not from that region?" Lucas inquired.

Garcia laughed, "Oh My God, I simply love your accent, you can talk to me any time, Emily has my phone number, home phone, especially. And I am not Spanish of origin, it's my step father's name, it's just I never got the chance to change it and it stayed for convenience and all….yada, yada, yada…"

Lucas gazed at her curiously, he did not understand what the last part meant at all.

Emily smiled, "It means and all others. It's slang."

Lucas gave her nod as he continued to look at her.

JJ and Garcia saw him looking at Emily who was returning his gaze.

"Ahem! Is there room in here for another?" Reid squeezed himself between Garcia and Emily as she stood close to Lucas, he raise his hand and touched her lower back. Emily gave him a small smile.

"Lucas North, meet our BAU nerd geek Dr. Spencer Reid.

They shook hands in the small confinement of JJ's office.

"So, you worked with MI-5, Military Intelligence, section D?" Reid asked.

"That is correct." Lucas confirmed.

"I don't understand why you have so many separate agencies yet they all worked under the same intelligence main frame under the British Crown." Reid continued.

"It is quite a complicated branching system, just like our American FBI agencies."

They began to discuss the difference but Emily cut them off and told them that they needed to make preparations to leave the country as their assignment here was done.

The BAU team was deflated when they said good bye to Emily again as they hugged her, and shook Lucas' hand.

Garcia cheekily told Emily as they hugged, that Lucas is the real thing and keeper.

JJ gave her two thumbs up as they waited for the elevator.

When the doors opened, Hotch stepped out and looked up to see Emily again, Emily held her hand out and shook Hotch's hand very briefly before she stepped into the elevator, Lucas' hand on the small of her back, Hotch saw as the elevator doors closed with her inside.

Hotch sighed;

"And there she goes." Hotch heard Dave's voice behind him. "Slipping away from you again."

Dave shook his head as he turned and walked away.

Emily and Lucas stepped out of the FBI building and walked to her rental car.

"I'm ready to go home." She said.

Lucas watched her. "Home? I thought this is your home here in America?"

"No, not here. I think I belonged more in London than here." She gave him a smile.

He grabbed her hand, "Then let's go home Agent Prentiss. You still owe me a dinner."

She laughed, "Yes, and I want a good dinner. A full five, no, seven course dinner."

He raised his brow at her, "Are you trying to bleed me dry? You realize MI-5 agents' paychecks are not the most generous."

"You're not taking me to McDonald's!"

They climbed into the car. "No, a much better restaurant, maybe Wendy's," he teased.

Emily reached over and punched him on his arm, "I don't think so!"

He laughed as he rubbed on the spot where she hit him. "Goodness Yankee Doll, you certainly pack a mean punch."

She laughed and shook her head, "Baby."

….

End of Chapter 8


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you to all who put this story on your favorite, alert, follow, and add to your lists!**

**.**

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 9

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While Emily drove back to the hotel, Lucas made the calls to the airlines to book their flights back to London, unfortunately, the earliest flight they could get was the next day in the mid-morning.

For Emily, it seemed not fast enough to leave D.C.

"Hungry?"Lucas asked her.

"Starving."

He turned to her, "Would you like to go out to dine?"

Emily thought for a while and shook her head, "Would it be all right if we stay in and order room service?"

Lucas shook his head, "Not at all, I wasn't in much of a mood to dine out myself anyways, I didn't pack my tuxedo." He teased her.

She glanced at him peripherally and giggled, "Right, and I haven't to shave my legs."

He gave her a strange look before they laughed together.

"Room service it is."He nodded. "How about dining with me?"

She nodded, "I like that. Thanks, It's a da…it sounds great."

She almost said _it's a date._ Something she had said to Hotch a while back before she had decided to accept INTERPOL. Those words would always be synonymous with Hotch.

She did not want to think about him. But he kept cropping up. Damn!

When they reached their rooms, Emily wanted to take a quick shower to freshen up and would meet him in his room in an hour. He nodded in agreement and they parted in their separate rooms.

Hopping into the shower she quickly shed her clothes and ran hot steaming water in the shower stall and soaked her body inside. She stood there for a long while, letting the hot water rain down her skin as she let her mind lose.

Recalling her meeting with Hotch, then Beth which in itself was incredulous, she shook her head as she let tears of disappointment fall. All those years of hope she let herself feel as she slid down on the stall and sat down. Hugging her knees, she put her forehead on knees as she wrapped her legs as her tears continued to flow.

It was a while before she was done, when she stood up and washed up all over again.

Shutting the water off, she toweled dried.

Emily decided not to bother with any make up at all. She wanted Lucas to see the real her, not all the made up crap she usually wore.

She put on a button up shirt and jeans and saw she had more than ten minutes to spare when she heard knocking on her door.

Thinking it might be Lucas; after all whom else could it be who knew they were here?

She opened the door and saw with a start;

"Hotch? What are you doing here? How did you know…?" She frowned as she held the door opened while Hotch stood before her.

But he didn't reply to her questions instead he stepped in, raised his hands and put them on her face lightly and leaned in and kissed her.

He kissed her for a long time.

Emily stood with her eyes opened, stunned at first, then she let him kissed her.

Hotch, feeling her unresponsive, stopped his kiss pulled away from her and looked at her.

"Emily? Are you okay?" he asked her, feeling confused.

She turned around and walked into her room. Hotch hesitated a moment and then followed her inside and closed the door and stood next to it.

Hearing the door close, Emily crossed her arms over her chest but she didn't turn to face him.

"You know, a month ago if you kissed me like you just did, I would have responded much differently. A lot differently."

"But now?" He asked quietly.

"I don't feel anything," she replied.

"What happened to you, Emily?"

She laughed, "I think you should rephrase that question and ask yourself."

"Me?"

She nodded, "You've changed, Hotch."

"I don't understand,

She finally turned around, "Then you shouldn't be here, Hotch."

He shook his head. "It's him…Lucas North, isn't it?"

She shook her head, "Hotch, you've been a good friend, let's remain this way." She walked to the door and opened it and looked at him with a half smile.

Hotch, looking dejected, nodded and left without another word.

Taking a breath and letting it out, she closed the door hearing it clicked, as if the sound was a finality of Hotch and her parting. "Goodbye Aaron." She said softly before she returned to the bathroom and completed her toiletries.

…

Five minutes later, Emily knocked on Lucas' door.

He opened and let her in, his grin was quite infectious as she grinned back at him, "Hi!"

"Hello, come in."

When she entered his room and looked in, she began to laugh;

Lucas had moved the beds into the far corner of the room and had used the white bed sheet and spread it onto the carpet, using it as a picnic spread.

Emily saw that he must have ordered practically everything on the hotel room service's menu!

There were sandwiches, pasta dishes, salads accompanied by dressings, breads in its baskets, rib eye steak, giant sized hamburgers, grilled fish, baked fish, and assorted desserts and fruits, and a couple of bottle of wine.

"Feeling a little hungry?" She giggled more as she sat down while he handed her a plate and silverware.

"I didn't know what you preferred, so I ordered everything, just in case there is something in the menu you might not like." He smiled at her as he helped himself to the food and spooned some on her plate.

He poured her a glass of white wine and they toasted to a successful mission from today.

"By the way," Lucas began. "Harry called and offered his thanks to you. Ivan Drushkinov's revelation of a potential terrorism plot towards the Russian Embassy was revealed and averted much to the delight of the prime minister."

Emily shrugged her head, "It was a joint effort, Lucas."

He looked at her, "Remember your compassion, it helped thaw Ivan and opened him to MI-6."

She said nothing but watched him.

He arched his brow at her as she smiled.

Her phone buzzed and she saw that it was Garcia but she pressed it and transferred it to voice mail.

"You don't want to talk to your friend?"

She shook her head, "I'm with my friend at the moment Lucas."

He nodded, "Thank you, that is very nice of you to consider me as your friend."

"I'm very particular in choosing my friends. I got burned too many times." She said as she took a drink.

"As do I, I don't have many friends either. MI-5 does not allow for that. She is a jealous mistress."

Emily laughed, "Funny, I feel the same way when I was working with the BAU, I did not have much of a personal life. I hang out with people I work with, which don't get me wrong, they are wonderful people. It's just occasionally, it would be nice to have a normal life."

"Not with our line of work, we do not have a normal life, Emily." He spooned a strawberry sorbet and fed it to her.

She bit into it and let it melt into her mouth as she gazed into his blue eyes.

He said, "Okay, just tonight, we'll be ordinary regular people. No shop talk allowed, agreed?"

She nodded, "No shop talk. I like that."

"We are just Emily and Lucas. No attachments."

"No phones." She grabbed her phone and turned it off and tossed it in a corner, Lucas did likewise.

They stacked the dishes and set it out in the hall way, except for the wine bottles.

Piling pillows on the bed, they lay against. Emily lay against Lucas as he gathered her to him, her back to his chest.

"Tell me about your childhood, where did you grew up. Being a daughter of an Ambassador, you must travel a lot." Lucas prompted as he held her.

Emily grinned, "Where should I begin? When my mother began her first posting? Or when my father accepted his position as a Member of the United Nations Security Council?"

Lucas was quiet for a moment before he laughed, really laughed, "My god! You really do not live a normal live! No wonder you crave for one."

She nodded under his chin as she took a drink from her wine.

"I'm beginning to wonder if there are any security services around us," he continued.

"It applies to minors. Let me tell you, it was a pain, and hard to dodge them. I made their lives a living hell. My mother was the worst. Her posting to the European countries were the worst until I met her secretary of state, Jean Marie Guinotte. She opened my eyes to the world beyond the embassy. And it was her and all the tutors she hired that taught me the gifts of languages."

"Exactly how many languages do you speak?"

She thought for a moment before she answered, "I can speak and read about eight. Write five."

"Wow."

She grinned.

"So, why FBI? And the BAU? Why did you not follow your father's footsteps?"

"He wanted that as well, I was his replacement." She remembered the many conversations she and her father had. And the jealousies her mother had shown. The closeness between father and daughter had caused such a rift between the couple that they separated for a long time.

"I met INTERPOL and Clyde Easter. And found my… true calling." She said sadly, remembering her old team; Sean McAllister, Tsia and Tsis's fiancé's Jeremy. All of whom were dead because of Ian Doyle.

"True calling…" Lucas echoed her words. "Those are horrible words so true for the few."

"They are yours too."

He didn't answer, he didn't need to. Recruited at a very young age, he found he was very good at espionage until his capture and betrayal in Russia. No doubt he was betrayed. He knew it was not his mentor and superior Harry Pearce. He had no clue who it was but he was determined to find out the mole. He didn't spend eight excruciating long torturous years and let it go just like that.

But for now, he blocked it and focused himself on Emily.

He found her different; she was nothing but intriguing and mesmerizing. Admittedly, she had many layers within her but who doesn't? And that was not his concern for the moment. In due time, he would get to know more about her, the true Emily Prentiss.

He set his wine glass on the side table, and took hers and set it by his.

Then he shifted them on the bed so that they were lying side by side, that he was able to see her face to face. He noticed she was bare of those feminine make-ups but she was still beautiful. A true beauty.

He reached up and stroke her soft cheek as she watched him, her warm brown eyes darkening into a deep brown, her perfect brows was arched as she saw him smiled.

"May I?" he asked her as he tapped lightly on her lower lip.

She nodded as he leaned forward and kissed her softly and sweetly.

Emily closed her eyes and felt his soft lips on hers and his fingers on her cheeks moved slowly to her lower jaw and down her neck and spreading out the collar of her shirt as he worked to unbutton them and ran his hand lightly on her smooth chest and felt something…a rough puckered raised patch on her skin.

Curious, he raised his head from her and looked down on her chest and saw a strange scar and looked back at her face, his brow arched.

She smiled and tried to sit away from him but he stopped her and fingered the strange mark. "Were you shot? And with what? I have never seen this before?"

"Ian Doyle gave me a lasting present." She said.

"Doyle. He keeps coming back in your life." Lucas said.

She chuckled, "My ghost of Christmas…well, Irish past."

"I'm glad you're able to make light of this. What is it?"

"It was his attempt of a four-leaf clover, and since he was not a certified tattoo artist and he did not have the proper equipment at that moment, he used a branding tool, I think a soldering iron."

He looked disgusted at the mark, "That's barbaric!"

"No more barbaric then what they'd done to you." She lifted his wrist and showed him his tattoo, it was a simple tattoo of five dots but it represented his life confined within four walls.

"Let's stop the chatter, shall we?" He lowered his head.

She nodded, "I like silent communications much more too!"

…..

They were driving towards Dulles International Airport when Emily decided to detour from the interstate and exited the ramp and drove onto the freeway leading to the Arlington National Cemetery.

"Why are we here?" Lucas inquired when he saw the signs are they entered the large gateway.

"We have some time before our flight and I want to say goodbye to someone. Do you mind?" She asked.

He shook his head as he held her hand for moment before he released it.

Last evening was a really fantastic night for him, and her. He recalled how they took the time to get to know each other's bodies.

He swallowed hard as he recalled her lovely body and all those bloody scars! What that bastard Doyle had done to her! That scar on her stomach; a wooden stake, bloody hell!

He clenched his fist tightly as he looked out, looking at the multitudes of monuments of tombstone of fallen soldiers, past and present, buried. Fought in various wars from different times and era. But in all came down to the same purpose; fighting for their country's freedom.

He wondered who Emily was paying her respect to as she slowed down along the road path and finally stopped.

They got out and began walking to a small hilltop and found a medium sized tombstone.

Lucas was startled when he saw it was Emily's tombstone!

"Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity." She came to stand beside him.

"I don't understand," he said as he turned to stare at her.

"They buried her when Ian Doyle killed her. In truth, I went off grid to protect the BAU team. He had killed almost all my former INTERPOL team except Clyde and I and I was next. We hunted him down and were successful. Doyle is dead, so was his gang."

"You returned to your team."

She nodded, "I tried to but it was not the same. I felt that they no longer trust me anymore. For all intends and purposes Emily Prentiss of the BAU is dead and had been dead since that day." She jerked her chin at the tombstone, the date of her death indicated engraved permanently.

Taking a deep sigh and letting it out, she said, "Goodbye Agent Prentiss." She looked at Lucas and took his hand, "Ready?"

He nodded, "Is your ghost laid to rest?"

"The ghost is ready to kick my behind out of this country. She is telling me there is only one Emily Prentiss here." She laughed as they walked down the mound.

"Let's go then, we don't _her_ to mark your fine tush and I happened to really like them."

Emily blushed deeply, "Well yours are not too bad looking too." She turned her head to stare at his tight jeans and giggled, "Nope, I seemed to recall last evening they were very nice."

"You're too generous with your praises, my lady."

"Maybe later, I might need more reminding of that fine tush."

He wriggled his eyebrows at her, "I can do that and more."

…..

End of Chapter 9


	10. Chapter 10

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 10

.

Home.

She was back home in London in her apartment. With Sergio.

Surprisingly, Sergio who did not like men being a male cat himself took to Lucas tolerably.

He meowed at him once and sauntered off to his perch and left them alone.

Emily giggled and told Lucas that he should feel privileged as Sergio usually ignore everyone he met.

Lucas grinned as he pulled her to him and showed her he, other hand was the jealous male…

The next day was back to work however. A very busy one as Emily found that on her desk was a mile high stack of files to complete.

Her secretary had numerous messages to answer and the rest of the day meetings with her team.

"So Emily," Sam, her second in command began with a grin. "How was Washington? I heard you got some big fella in big trouble. Cost him his job."

Emily rolled his eyes, "We got the job done."

"Yeah, with the help of MI-5." Robert 'Bob' Newsome added, her marksman expert.

They were in a briefing room with Emily at the head of the table. Her secretary Mrs. Diggs taking notes quietly.

Fanta his laptop as usual up and running, eyes glued on the screen.

Her martial arts experts Michael 'Frankie' Freeman slouching on his chair as he grinned with his colleague, Walter 'Waltie' Dressen who was her team explosive expert.

"Come guys, cut the cute crap and give me the serious stuff. What happened at the surveillance?"

All joking gone, they sat up straight and began briefing seriously. That was what she liked about her team. They knew when to kick back and joke but when it was time to be serious, they could turn off that mode and became serious instantly and acted professionally.

"…It was really an easy take down. Targets didn't know what hit them until we had them cuffed. I don't' think their neighbors knew what was going on either." Sam said as he slid Emily his report.

Emily nodded as she speed read the paper before passing it to Mrs. Diggs. "Please file it to completed mission, Mrs. Diggs. Well done guys. I'm sorry I wasn't there. Missed the fun there."

They grinned, "Not a problem Mamma Bear."

They chuckled as Emily shook her head, "At least it sounded better than Yankee Doll." She mumbled.

"Oh no, we still like Yankee Doll." Sam said. "It's either that or Snow White."

"Snow White?"

"And we're your Dwarves!" They laughed jovially her secretary shook her head but she was smiling too.

"You guys are two dwarves short." Emily chuckled. "No pun intended." They laughed.

"So which dwarves are you guys?" Mrs. Diggs asked, getting in on their fun.

"That's easy; Sam is Doc, Bob is Grumpy…"

"Hey! I'm not Grumpy! Well, not all the time!" Bob said sourly.

"Exactly!" They all said.

Bob threw his hands out, "Bah!"

"Frankie is Happy, cause wifey is expecting his kid…blesss his soul!" Said Sam, his eyes crinkled.

"Okay, I got it, Waltie is… Shy, cause he can't talk to the women still," Sam continued. "Poor sap.

Emily frowned as she was trying to figure out what Sam was talking about..shy…

"Wait...you mean Bashful." She said.

They looked at her, "Huh?"

"One of the dwarves… Bashful, not shy." She shook her head.

"I thought it was Shy."

"Like I said, you guys are killing my childhood." Emily groaned. Mrs. Diggs was laughing quietly.

"Bashful, Shy…what's the difference?" Sam asked as he looked around, they shrugged at him.

"The Seven Dwarves are…Doc, Bashful, Happy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Dopey and Sleepy." Emily said balefully.

Frankie grinned, "Did you say Sleazy?"They all laughed out loud.

Emily shook her head, "I work with idiots."

"So who is Fanta?" Bob eyed Sam.

Sam looked at the youngest member of the team and grinned, they all knew it was coming but yet, they let Sam have his moment, "Fanta…Fanta, Fanta, Fanta…is …" he deliberately dragged on.

"DOPEY!" They all exclaimed finally when Sam dragged on, even Mrs. Diggs!

Fanta's head was buried in his hands while he laughed.

Finally, Emily stood up signifying the conclusion of the meeting as the others also stood up. They left the room shortly.

Emily returned to her office where she stayed there the rest of the afternoon, stuck with her paperwork.

She did however, received a text message from Lucas inviting her to dinner later that evening, if she was not too terribly busy.

Smiling happily, she accepted his invitation and returned to her work.

Emily enjoyed her life at the moment, her relationship with Lucas North was going great. They were getting to know each other very well outside of work. They had even made a pact; when they were outside of work, they tried not to talk about it. They usually talk about their childhood. Emily learned that Lucas' childhood was simpler than hers; he was born and raised in the country to a Methodist father who became a deputy Commissioner and his mother a detective superintendent of Forensics.

Emily knew or gotten to know Lucas and the profiler in her couldn't help but profiled a very private and tortured soul in him.

Although he was beginning to thaw and slowly talked to her but deep down he still had many layers he had not yet trusted her to reveal.

One of them was Elizabeta. She was still curious to know who she was but it was not in her nature to prod, rather, she would let him opened up first if ever he would. Since the first time he had uttered her name in his sleep, he had never done so anymore

And another thing, he always came to her apartment, oh, it never bothered her at all as her apartment was a warm and homey place and if he felt comfortable to hang around, so be it.

She was not the clingy type anyways. Her job couldn't afford her to be so at all. There would be days she would be out of town for a while but then, so would he.

It was almost an open relationship. If he was in town, he would come by and see her. If he was not, she had plenty other things to do.

And she still skyped with her BAU friends.

"So…."Garcia grinned when she was on the video chat online with Emily. JJ had yet to sign on, she was giving Henry a bath, she had texted that she would be on in a few minutes. "How is our gorgeous Brit?"

"Our?" Emily laughed. "Wanna rephrase that, PG? You must have forgotten, you are still with Kevin?"

Garcia pooh-poohed her, "Kevin and I are history, so three months ago Em. Get with the program, dear. I am with Michael, however as a friend capacity only."

"A friend capacity? What the heck is that? Either a friend or girlfriend, there is no such thing as in between, Garcia. It's called, I'm-taking-an-advantage-of-you,-girl-until-I-find- another-sucker-and-then-its-goodbye-chickie!"

"God! Emily, why can't you be more impractical and cheer me on." She said depressingly.

Emily laughed, "Because, my friend, I love you too much and care for you too and don't want to see you hurt. You goof ball."

She sigh, "If only your Lucas has a brother, he does, doesn't he?"

"I don't know. I'll be sure to ask him when I see him."

"Where is he?"

"Work. He works too."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, story of our lives."

"You know it." Emily said as she took a drink of her wine glass.

Garcia held hers up too.

It was their tradition; when they were online, they would be having a glass or two of white wine, depending on how long they would chat.

"Where is JJ? How long does it take for her to put my godson to bed?" Garcia groused.

"Did you have a bad day at work, PG?" Emily frowned.

"That my brunette friend is an understatement of the year."

"Why? What happen?" Emily became protective over her best friend instantly.

"Hotch is on his regular war path."

"Oh…regular warpath? What is going on?" Emily asked.

"I don't know…but all I know is that since you left a couple of days ago, he had been in a bad mood, I mean a really bad mood. I have never seen him like this before. Even Rossi got his head bitten off by him."

"Ouch!" Emily remarked.

"I know. It was absolute hell these past couple of days. We finished our work and got out fast now."

At this point, Emily saw Lucas had came into her apartment, she smiled at him as he sat down on the chair away from her laptop, Garcia could not see him or was she aware of his presence in Emily's apartment as he waited for her to be done so they could go out for dinner.

Eager to end her online chat but didn't want to be rude to Garcia, Emily tried to smoothly talk her way out when Garcia spoke out.

"Em, you could talk to Hotch. You two used to be close. I mean not close-close, but good friends close."

"Garcia, Hotch and I are just friends…"Emily hesitated.

"I know! But still you used to have this big crush on him and he knew it too. I don't know why he didn't connect with you."

Emily almost groaned out loud, she saw Lucas stiffened visibly as he stared at her as she began to shake her head at Garcia.

"Don't shake your head, girlfriend!" Garcia admonished her. "Remember all your conversations we had of him? How you used to tell JJ and I about your feelings for Hotch and what you wanted to do to him if you ever get a chance with him?" Garcia grinned. "You used to drool over Hotch when he wears that black shirt under that dark suit!" her friend was laughing openly.

Lucas stood up and went to the door and opened it, and left.

Garcia heard the click and asked, "What was that?"

Emily sighed and shook her head, "It's nothing." _Just my future…walking out the door…possibly forever._

"Oh."

"Pen, Hotch and I are not an item. He chose Beth. And I've learned to accept it. I think we all should. Okay?"

Garcia slumped her shoulders and nodded, "I know but she is..I don't know…so hard to accept."

"Try. She is good for Hotch. He likes her. Be happy for him. Be supportive for him. He really deserves the happiness and Jack, too."

Garcia leaned into the screen, making her head really big, "Wow! You're a saint. I think I see that halo above your head."

Emily smiled sadly. "Hey, I gotta go. Sergio is making a stinky in his litter box and it's a whopper!"

Garcia laughed, "Okay…I need to call my so call friend anyways. Stay well my friend!"

"You too PG! All the love to you." Emily shut her laptop and leaned back on her couch.

_Crap! She knew things were going way too good! Good bye Lucas._

She looked out of the window and saw that it had gotten dark, well past dinner but she was not hungry anymore…she was to go to dinner with Lucas. But not after Garcia's revelation.

Remembering his reactions, she really couldn't blame him at all. She should be truthful and honest with him but really it was not his business and they didn't even had a relationship anyways…thank goodness.

_Oh well_…she smiled as Sergio jumped and sat on her lap, she stroked her faithful cat.

_Here's one _man_ she could relied on, Sergio had not cheated on her nor had gotten angry with her so far._

.

…..

Chapter 10


	11. Chapter 11

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 11

.

.

Emily stayed on the couch with Sergio for a while longer before she got up and went to the kitchen, much to the disgust of her cat who had gotten comfortable on her lap.

"I had to wash my glass, Serge so don't give me that look." She explained to her friend as she was over at the sink.

Moving towards to her bedroom down the hallways, she decided to grab her files to work on them before she turned in for the night. But when she stepped into her room, she heard some noises in the front foyer of her main living room apartment. She realized she did not lock the doors.

Crap!

Luckily her service weapon was in her bedroom dresser, so she softly pulled it opened and grabbed her gun and moved quietly out of her bedroom.

She hoped her cat was safely away from the front door; he could be a quite nosy.

Moving bare feet on the wooden floors, she pointed her gun in front of her and advanced until she reached the front and dashed out quickly and skidded to a stop when she saw her front door wide opened!

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" she yelled out loud, she aimed her gun at the bent head of…

"Lucas?" She said stunned when he turned around with his hand held out.

He grinned at her, "Yes, it's me, Emily. Are you expecting somebody else?"

"But I thought you…you…"She looked absolutely stunned as she kept her gun pointed at him.

"Um, how about lowering your weapon and I bring in dinner…er, Sergio seems to be interested in it too." He was looking at her cat who was nosing at the packages.

Emily still frowning lowered her gun as she gazed at the two big bags Sergio was rubbing and purring against them.

Shoulders sagged, she smiled apprehensively and smiling the contents of the packages which were giving off a very strong and delicious smell throughout the apartment, she said, "You brought Serge's favorite dinner."

Lucas looked down at the feline, "He likes curry?"

She nodded, "He loves it."

"…never met a cat that likes curry, really quaint animal." He picked up the packages and carried it to the kitchen, Sergio followed hurriedly.

"I don't have a normal cat." She turned to put her gun away in a drawer, after checking to make sure it was on safety.

Emily watched him removed the boxes of delicious smelling curry out of the bags and placed them on the counter. And then turned and found her plates and silverwares.

She peeked into the packages and saw he had bought Chicken Tandoori, Koft; a flour balls fried with vegetables, Vindaloo; a pork dish with red chili paste, musha juola; fish curry, roti, an Indian flat bread, and basmati rice.

Emily's stomach gurgled loudly as she blushed, "It's past dinner for me," she reasoned.

He nodded, "It is for me too." He passed her a plate so she could began to serve herself some of each dishes. As she was doing so, a very disgruntled and opinionated Sergio began to meow his displeasure at being left out.

Lucas took a small dish out from the cabinet and scooped out some fish curry for him and set it down, "Here my friend, bon appetite."

Serge purred loudly as he began to lap the sauce and at the meat.

Mouth full, "Wow, this is delicious, Lucas. I love curry food." Emily smiled as she took a drink of her wine he had poured for her.

"I'm glad you do, I like to set my mouth on fire occasionally you know," he arched a brow as he grin at her.

"I thought you had left." She said, after a moment.

"I did and came back with dinner."

"You know what I mean, Lucas."

She looked at him, "You overheard my conversation with Pen."

He nodded, "And you thought because of that, I left. Just like that."

"I…"

"I thought you knew me a lot better than that." He said as he continued looking at her.

"Honestly I don't know what to expect of you. I'm sorry I doubted you, and I was surprised when you left."

"Your relationship with Hotchner really is not my affair," He didn't look at her this time. "I figured it was over and done or you'd not be here."

"There was no relationship with Hotch at all." Emily said finally. "Once I thought there might be but that was it, I thought."

"You must be sorely disappointed."

She arched a brow at him, "At one point, I was."

"What happened?"

Over the rest of their dinner, she told him about George Foyet, and the tragic murder of his ex-wife Haley. She had helped Hotch healed his wounds, mentally and physically but when things appeared to be well and close for them, when it seemed as if there might be a chance for them to connect, there was the incident with the homeland security and the terrorist in New York City, and Kate Joyner, the FBI agent who had previously knew Hotch. Of course it steered up some emotions from him and when she was killed and had died in his arms, he had pushed Emily away.

Once again, she slowly built that confidence with him again, he was opening to her and they talked, she listened.

He was becoming warm to her again. Their work relationship was going well again when Ian Doyle escaped from prison. And from that point, everything soured.

She couldn't regain that footing with Hotch ever again. The glass was shattered permanently.

Just like the BAU team, that trust was torn and shredded.

And what hurt more was she later found out from JJ, Hotch was supposed to be the one to meet her in Paris to hand her the paperwork that enabled her to go underground but somehow, he changed his mind and had JJ go in his stead.

He gave JJ some excuse that Jack was ill and that Jessica his sister could not keep him so he had to change plans.

JJ found out from Garcia that Hotch running in a park, training for his upcoming marathon and that he was chatting with some woman in the background. Garcia had called him from work as the Section Chief had some questions about the death of Emily and the expense of her stay at an out of state hospital.

"It had hurt very deeply. While I was here in London, during my free time I thought a lot, and asked myself a lot of mental questions. I drove myself crazy in the evenings, telling myself that I was destined to grow old and ended up becoming cat lady, adopting a bunch of companions for Sergio."

They were sitting on the couch in the living room at this moment.

She watched him, who was sitting next to her, "And you're still not telling me, why?"

He turned to her, "Why did I not leave?"

He leaned over and picked up her hand held it, "You have become an important part of my life, Emily Prentiss. I would have to be a bloody shallow idiot to let him mattered. Yes, I am jealous of your feelings for him but I am not threatened by him at all because if you still have feelings for him, you would not have stayed here after our latest assignment."

"I don't understand?" She frowned at him.

"I saw him at your room that evening, the night before we left Washington D.C. I heard a knock and opened the door and saw Hotchner but he didn't see me. He didn't stay long, I saw and privately I felt relieved."

She smiled, "You were jealous back then?"

He nodded, "Of course, who wouldn't be? You're so beautiful and bloody smart."

Emily blushed instantly.

"Hotchner was a damn bloody fool." He pulled her to him until she was sitting on his lap as he kissed her.

Then he stopped and looked down and paused.

"Lucas? Are you okay?" Emily frowned as she palmed his jaw, a light give o'clock shadow was beginning to appear on his jaw.

"Yes, I guess to be fair with you I have to tell you about her…"

"Her?"

He nodded, "Elizabeta…she was my ex-wife."

Stunned, Emily whispered, "Ex-wife? I didn't know you were married."

"She is an agent of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation or…"

"An FSB agent." Emily nodded.

"We met while I was undercover in Russia and…we fell in love and married." He looked beyond her living room as he recalled his ex-wife; dark long hair, dark eyes, fair skin. But cold in demeanor, something he was attracted to at first but found out later it was just her. He had loved her, he had live for her during those eight years in prison.

"She did not wait for me when I came back," he continued.

"She remarried?"

"No, she no loved me. When I returned from Russia, the first thing I did was reconnected with her. Elizabeta was quite stunned to see me, she thought I was dead all those years. The love was not there anymore I could see it in her eyes. It was dead. She was cold."

He dropped his gaze and turned to Emily. "She had told me that because she thought I was presumed dead, she had filed the paperwork to declare out marriage ammulled as we were just married previously. She wished me well with my life and I watched her drove off and have never seen her since."

"I'm sorry Lucas." Emily said simply.

He shrugged. "I've gotten over her since. It was not easy but since meeting you, she had been but a memory. So thank you Emily for helping me move on and move on to you."

She smiled, "And you've helped me moved on as well…Lucky Charms."

He arched his brow at her, "I see we're back at name calling again, Yankee Doll."

She chuckled, "That and another one my team had came up with, Snow White."

"Snow White?"

She nodded, "I guess you're my Prince Charming!"

He groaned, "I don't think so. Lucky Charms is rubbing on me, no more names!" He commenced to tickle her..

She giggled more as she fended herself from him and he ended up lying on top of he

"Hey, I like this…being on top of you…very dominative!" He grinned.

She punched him lightly, "Dominative? Who use that kind of word anymore? So …so…medieval!" She laughed!

"Well, I'm your knight in shining armor rescuing a damsel in distress…feeding her curry for dinner…what do they eat back in those days, anyways?" He smiled as he slowly removed the buttons from her shirt.

Emily watched him as she began to breathe hard, "I don't know but I bet they don't have a curry addicted cat back then either." Buttons completely, Lucas lowered his head down to where Emily's stomach was.

"Hmmm? I don't recall damsels back then wear jeans…maybe we should take care of that…yes...let's divest this strange material this instance…Snow White."

Emily was now laughing openly as he was unbuttoning her jeans as he smiled boyishly at her…

…..

End of Chapter 11

**Sorry this is short chapter...but will be working on another case fic! Hang in there!**

**J.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hope I didn't scare anyone off! And now, we're off to another assignment!**

**Thank you to all who put this on your add, favourite, and follow on your list! **

**Thank you guest reviewer –****Taylor, for your kind review!**

**.**

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INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 12

.

The next morning when Emily arrived at work, she discovered there was a large basket of red delicious apples on her desk.

Smiling, she saw there was a card in it and took it out and read it and was soon induced to laughter.

Her secretary Mrs. Diggs came running in to find out what was the matter with her only to see Emily bent over next to the basket.

"Whatever is the matter with you, Agent Prentiss?" The middle aged woman was holding her chest in relieved, eyeglasses almost askew.

Emily looked up at her and shook her head, "Oh, nothing at all, Mrs. Diggs. Would you like an apple?"

She glared at Emily as though she had lost her mind before she shook head, "No thank you, Agent Prentiss. Not at eight in the morning." She turned around and headed back to her office.

Emily walked to her chair and sat down before she picked up her cell phone and quickly texted to Lucas.

_PC: Got your apples but shouldn't this be the evil step mother's job?" SW._

She put her phone down and turned her laptop on and commenced to check on her emails.

Her phone buzzed; a text from Lucas; _PC?_

She smiled as she texted back; _Prince Charming!_

He texted; _Oh, I'd preferred Lucky Charms, cereals are better than that fictional wimpy looking fella (yes, had to Google and saw a photograph of a Disney picture of him…frankly I do not see any resemblance!) Come on E, I'm much better looking than him._

She laughed out right as she read his text.

She fired back at him; _OK, you are way better than he is, LC!_

_There, much better, SW! Gotta go, Harry is making faces. _

_Harry doesn't make faces, he only has one face. Later!_

She sighed happily as she continued with her emails, answered them, did her routine

"Agent Prentiss, you have a..make that two visitors to see you." Mrs. Diggs came on in the interoffice phone.

"Who is it?" Emily asked while still buried with a report.

"Um…Security Council Member James Prentiss, and Ambassador Elizabeth Pre…Wait! Ma'am! They're coming in!"

Emily shot out of her chair; Mom and dad? Together?

James Prentiss, a formidable looking man in his late fifties was tall and well built, still fairly handsome with dark hair, lightly sprinkled with a few grey giving him a more distinguished demeanor, his eyes lined with deep wrinkles at the corners showed humor and wears a beard walked in in a welled tailored suit and a scarf.

Elizabeth Prentiss was also tall in stature, holds herself well in demeanor as her ambassador status. Dark haired and light skinned, she looked like her daughter but with more of a severe presence while Emily has her father's happy disposition.

Rushing to her parents, Emily eagerly hugged them, after she reassured her secretary that it was all right to admit her parents without visitors passes. Their secretaries were taking care of their credentials.

Sitting them down, Emily was still stunned to see them, "Mother, Daddy…what are you doing here? I mean in London?"

Elizabeth looked at her husband who nodded gravely, and she began, "Emily, we that is your father needs your help." Emily frowned at her dad.

"Daddy, is everything okay?"

"Not exactly, Poppet." He shook his head. "Three days ago. The council received a message from a known source that unless we cease to meet as planned, there will be an oncoming threat or consequences from the Syrians."

"Syria? Are you sure?" Emily asked.

"He spoke old Aramaic."

"Daddy, I have to go through the chain of commands on this," she returned to her desk and made a call to Clyde Easter, her boss in the INTERPOL.

"Clyde, where are you?"

_In the most disgusting and barbaric country the United Nation saw fit to make friends with and stick me in the midst of. Why?" _She smiled as his ill humor.

She quickly explained to him about what her father had said.

_Your father? Is here?_

"Yes Clyde, so please behave." Emily saw her parents raised an eyebrow each as they glanced at her.

There was a pause and Clyde continued, _Okay darling, I'm calling France and telling them to give you the lead. MI-5 or MI-6 will be involved too. They will want details of the message and get in on the inside._

"NO!" Emily shook her head.

_What? No? Em, You don't decide on that. You are on protection duty for the National Security Council, that is all you're doing, darling._

"I want to be on the inside, Clyde."Emily insisted.

_Sorry not my call, and they definitely will not let you, a Yank, inside._

"I don't care, Clyde, make it happen. Or they don't work the case."

She could hear Clyde muttered not very nice words on the other end of the line, _I'll get back to you, babe. Don't go anywhere!_

She disconnected the call.

James Prentiss nodded at her phone, "Well Poppet?"

Emily smiled at the endearing childhood nickname only her father called her into her adulthood, "My team will be activated and they will be your protective details."

"But I have security protections."

She shook her head, "They do not have the experience, Daddy. And you will be staying in a safe location. And you too, mother."

"Me? Why me? I am not being threatened."

"It doesn't matter, as the wife of the NSC member, that makes you a target."

"But I have to get back to the Malta Embassy to my new postings!" Elizabeth stood up.

Emily sighed, "Daddy , please talk to her?"

James nodded and stood up and moved them to a corner and soon they were in a quiet heated exchanged.

She picked up her cell phone and called her team leader, "Sam, activate the team, we're on protection duty…my father. I'll brief you on the rest later, just round everyone up and get the gears ready. I want Fanta up and ready with the latest Syrian news. Thanks."

Twenty minutes later, Clyde returned her call, _Darling, sorry MI-6 is tied up in Afghanistan so you're getting section D. Harry wants to meet with you and your dear old dad. How about a trip to Thames House?"_

Emily frowned, "What can -5 do that we can't'?"

_Emily, just hear them out, okay? Let them do their job. Why are you so adverse to their aid?_

"If they go undercover, and something happened to their agents, it would be on me." She didn't want to add that the possibility of Lucas being placed in danger because of her.

_Em, they know what to do, they've been doing this for years. Trust Harry Pearce. I do_. He said.

Emily heard his voice, he was serious. All joking was put aside for once.

_When is this NSC meeting anyways?_ Clyde asked after a moment. Emily looked up

James answered and said, "Next week."

Clyde whistled_, Really doesn't give them much time to infiltrate properly_.

"Great, now you're telling me, Clyde. Very reassuringly."

_Em, darling, why are you so worrie…..Oh! I see…don't tell me you're…_

"Clyde, shut it now! It's not your business. Really, my parents are here. I'll call you later and brief you more on it." Emily quickly glanced at her parents who were listening in with great interest.

He laughed, _Yes, my dear, you will. Ciao darling!_

Emily sighed loudly as she pressed her phone to end.

"Poppet, who is this Clyde, and what is his relationship to you? Is he your boyfriend?" He glanced at Elizabeth.

Emily snapped her head up quickly and shook it, "God no Daddy! He is a really good friend of mine, and my boss."

"But dear, the way he talks to you…does he take …er, special liberties with you?" James' was red with embarrassment.

"DADDY! Oh my god! NO! Clyde is just a friend, we've known each other for a very long time, and oh dear!" She began to laugh! "That is just the way he talks! And no, no…not at all, we've never been…not like that. Just friends." Emily shook her head.

"Come on, let's get to MI-5. But you'd have to leave your goon squad here. Their security is pretty stringent.

"Goon squad?" James asked confusedly.

"Your security detail, Daddy." She reached over and grabbed an apple from the basket and stood next to him. "You won't need them where we're going."

He nodded as he walked ahead and informed them to stay behind much to their objection.

Informing Mrs. Diggs of where she was headed to, the Prentiss family left the INTERPOL building. They rode in James Prentiss' chauffeur – driven vehicle; Emily was still iffy about driving around London and its 'wrong-side' of the road.

…..

Meanwhile, in the sanctuary of MI-5;

Harry Pearce had just ended his telephone conversation with the Prime Minister and was informed of the potential threat to the forthcoming National Security Council Meeting which was taking place next week. One of its members had received a potential terroristic threat and had asked MI-5 to defuse it.

In the meeting room, besides Harry were Lucas, Ros Myers, Ruth Evershed, Tariq Masood, their computer analysis/expert, Harry's top officers.

"Harry?" Lucas looked around him, "What is this pow-wow meeting about?"

Harry gave him a dull stare, "We're expecting a bloody visit."

"A visit? What kind of visit?" Ruth asked, she was always the most curious.

Tariq, his laptop fired up and ready, looked at his boss, "Yes Harry, Who is this royal personage?"

"Royal?" Ros perked up. "What royal peeps are coming over? We haven't dusted our furniture yet, "she grinned at Ruth who smiled back at her.

"It's not a royal personage, Tariq. All I said is a visit. If you want to know, you bunch of nosy eager beavers, you don't know them at all anyways…well some of you but one of you does." He glared at Lucas.

Lucas saw Harry's dark looks, "Me? Who is it?"

"The last name is Prentiss. Now, does the name rings a bell?"

Lucas stiffened immediately as he sat upright, "Emily? What about her?"

"You know her?" Tariq smiled at him as he began to type her name on his laptop and as soon as it came up, he gave her image a wolf-whistle, "Not bad, not bad taste Lucas!"

Ros narrowed her gaze at Emily's enlarged image on the screen, "Oh yes, INTERPOL chick…kicked Lucas' arse a while back."

Tariq was laughing as well as Ruth who looked at Harry but he was not amused by their bantering. "I like bad ass chick, hmmm...she is single…nice." He said admirably."

Lucas was glaring darkly at Tariq as well as Ros who shrugged her shoulders at him when they exchanged looks.

"As soon as you are done drooling at Agent Prentiss, perhaps you'll go to her parents' files, Tarig. Don't forget to wipe your face while you're at it." Harry said sourly.

Lucas was grinding his jaw as he was observing the younger's man's grin; he would love to wipe the grin permanently off his face!

"Down Lucas, down boy! You know they are having fun at your expense," Ruth whispered cheekily at him as she patted at her.

Lucas took a deep breath and let it out before he tried to relax.

Tariq put up the image of Emily's father came on the screen.

"James Prentiss, National Security Council Member," Tariq began to read his short biography that included a stellar career in politics and largely responsible putting together cyberspace security and the safety infrastructure on the reduction of international cyber warfare. Wow, he is serious stuff. And so forth. I wouldn't mind meeting him personally," Tariq's eyes were gleaming.

"Tariq, let's focus on our work here, you're hero worshipping a man you've never met before in your life." Harry said.

"Ouch!" Jo shook her head. "I think Harry is a pinch jealous."

"I certainly am not." This time the death stare was directed at her but she just grinned at Harry.

"Next, the mother." Harry said to the computer analysis.

Tariq put Elizabeth Prentiss on the screen.

"An ambassador to the European countries most of her life, Ambassador Prentiss' was responsible for negotiating in the release of fifteen civilians held hostages in Hague twenty years ago.

Tariq brought up images of terror and hostages rescue including one Lucas saw of a young Emily wrapped in a green blanket, her face was bloodied but he recognized her anyways.

"Wait, scroll back the image…stop. Isn't that Emily?" Lucas said The rest looked about confused.

"I'm not sure, let me read further…"

Suddenly, a new voice chimed in, "You're right, that is Emily when she was fifteen years old. Terrorists kidnapped her and her guard as hostages together with other embassy staff members." Elizabeth Prentiss, Emily and James Prentiss walked into the briefing room. The MI-5 team stood up as they listened to the ambassador's story while Lucas was watching Emily. She was returning his gaze steadily.

"They were held for over two weeks, six of my staff died. Emily would have been next were it not for her guard sacrificing his life. They tortured her as they made her watched her beat her guard daily."

"Mother, enough." Emily said as she tossed the apple to Lucas who caught it expertly and walked out of the room. Lucas followed after her.

James walked up to Harry, "James Prentiss, you must be Sir Harry Pearce, a pleasure."

"Indeed, Sir James." Harry said as he shook his hands.

James waved his hand about, "Please, just James." Then he turned to the others as they introduce themselves to him and Elizabeth."

"Please, have a seat and we'll discuss what it is we have here," James nodded. He pulled a chair out for his wife.

Lucas looked out and saw Emily walking to the ladies' room and hurried after her.

He went into the room and hoped there were no women using it, well…he really didn't care at the moment, all he cared was Emily.

She was leaning against the counter, her back to the mirror.

"Emily…" Lucas stood next to her, bouncing the apple back and forth between his hands.

She nodded at him, "They used their guns, hands, and then their belts and beat us."

"I told mother they only hit him to spare her but they did it to me too."

Lucas nodded, "I know, I could see the faint scars on your back, not quite but it's still there. I thought they were from Doyle."

She shook her head, "The files were permanently sealed but I was in a psychiatric ward for a year. I was fine but mother insisted I had to be there. Daddy set up a trust fund for his children. They are now a doctor and a nurse," she smiled. "Daddy and I went to their graduation. It was pretty cool."

"I think you're pretty cool, Emily. And brave."

"I thought I would never have to relive those memories ever again, Lucas."

"I'm sorry. We were looking at your family history, impressive I have to say." He tried to lighten her mood. "It's like the political royal family.

Emily snorted, "Hardly. It's not what you think."

"I can imagine. Your parents are pretty powerful people. And you're the pawn."

She nodded, "You are pretty astute."

"I'm pretty too."

She couldn't help but laughed, he joined in with her.

"Feel better?" He pulled her to him as he kissed her.

She nodded.

"Let's go rejoin the pow-wow, shall we?" He opened the door as he took a bite of the apple.

"Pow-wow? She looked at him as they walked back to the room, "I think you're hanging around those bloody Yanks too long!"

"I think so too, I've been having some weird cravings, like Yankee Doll and Snow White." He whispered in her ears.

She giggled as he nodded to her. They schooled they features before they entered the room.

As they sat down, the MI-5 team gave them a cursory glance before they turned their attention back to James Prentiss who continued his briefing.

"…those terrorist will not be terrorizing the meeting. It is vitally important that we must go through with the meeting. As of this moment, I do not know exactly who this threat is. Or how to stop it. All I know is it is Syrian."

How are so sure, sir?" Lucas asked.

"He spoke Old Aramaic." James replied.

"And what does that mean?" Lucas asked again.

"Not many country speak the language, not even modern Syrian people, the new generations do not speak it anymore." Emily said.

"Let me guess, you do." Lucas said.

She nodded her head.

Lucas spread his hands out wide, "Harry, I can't infiltrate if I can't speak Ara.."

"Aramaic."Emily said.

Lucas nodded, "Thank you, Agent Prentiss." He took another bite of his apple.

She nodded as she leaned in and whispered, "Enjoying the apple?"

He nodded as he leaned in close to her, "It's not poisonous, Snow."

She snorted.

"You'll just have to take me with you," she shrugged.

"Out of the question!" Elizabeth and Lucas said at the time, they looked at each other.

"I agree," Harry said. "They do not respect women in that country."

"They will if she goes in as a married woman." Ruth chimed in.

They all looked at her as if she suddenly sprouted a horn or two.

"What?" Harry stared at Ruth.

"If they posed as a married couple, she will have a better respect and status. And she can move around more easily then as a single woman." Ruth explained further.

Lucas turned to grinned at a stunned Emily, "Hello darling." The MI-5 younger group snickered at them.

She shook her head, "That is not funny, Lucas! There has to be a safer way, Ruth?"

She shook her head, "I don't see any other possible solution, Agent Prentiss." Ruth grinned. "You'll just have to go in as a married couple or risk exposure and you don't have the time for that, isn't the right, Sir James?"

Emily's father nodded.

But Elizabeth and James began to whisper for a moment before James nodded, "It is a dangerous assignment, Emily. Your mother does not want you to place yourself in there." James looked at her.

"Daddy, I'm capable of looking after myself. And I'll take care of him too." She thumbed at Lucas' way.

"Gee, thanks my dear." They laughed at his humor.

"Sir, "Lucas spoke. "Rest assure, I will take care of your daughter and get the mission done quick."

James thought for a moment, then nodded, "Very well. I can't think of anyone to go in. Emily can speak Aramaic. She will be your best asset. You will be there to keep her safe. I'm holding you to that, young man."

"Yes, sir."

Harry leaned over to Ruth, "Do you think this is the wisest decision?"

"They did come back in one piece the last assignment." Ruth reasoned.

Harry nodded, "Point well taken, Ruth."

"Glad you see it my way." Ruth said.

Harry glance at her, "Don't get too cheeky with me too much."

Ruth giggled quietly.

The Prentisses stood up and thanked Harry for his assistance which Harry assured them he will keep monitoring the mission once it was under way.

"Emily, have dinner with your mother and I at the hotel…the same hotel we usually stay at," her father said as they climbed into the car. Emily stayed behind at the MI-5 for further briefing for the case.

She nodded, "Usual time at 8?" Emily waved at them.

James leaned out of the window and smiled and pointed at Lucas, "Bring him too. I like him very well."

Emily smiled as she leaned down and whispered to her father, "I will Daddy, I like him too."

James chuckled, "See you later, Poppet."

They then drove off.

Lucas grinned at her, "Poppet?"

"Shut up," She said. Lucas tucked her hand into his elbow and they walked back into the House.

…

End of Chapter 12

**Now who says Brits do not have a sense of humor?**

…**next up…dinner with the parents? Hmmm… that ought to be interesting! **

**J.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey Everyone! Sorry for the delay! Spent some time with the kids and first day of School Out (YEAH!)**

**Also, I'm really excited to introduce Magpie of Silver- My new Beta! Thank you so much for Beta-ing this Chapter! Looked superbly cool!**

**Thanks to all for your cool reviews and putting this story in your alert/follow/ and fav!**

**Now on with the story! Enjoy!**

**.**

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 13

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"Dinner with your parents?" Lucas eyed at Emily as they made their way back to MI-5.

Emily nodded as she kept walking and she did not see his expression which was just a pinch fearful; really, dining with the parents usually indicated a pivotal direction in a relationship. Lucas felt intimidated by it.

Emily looked up at him when he hadn't spoken at all and she realized the implication when she finally saw his pinched look.

Shaking her head, she grinned, "Oh my god Lucas! You are not going to be served on the silver platter! Relax, it's just only a dinner…okay, it is a semi-formal dinner…"

"A semi-formal? I thought it'd be just T-shirt and jeans, meat loaf and mashed potatoes type of dinner?" He narrowed his gaze at her. _Great, this is getting even better!_He thought wryly.

She wrinkled her nose, "Yuck! Never like meat loaf, and I don't think my mother knows what domestic is. We usually dine semi-formal when Daddy is around. So, dust off your tux, Lucky Charms."

He shook his head, "You're lucky I do have a few extra sets of tux just in case. I hope you've shaved your legs." He teased.

She whipped her head around to him, "I beg your pardon! Of course I shaved them, didn't you feel them last night?" She whispered to him as they were approaching the briefing room.

"It was dark and I thought I was feeling up Serge's fur." He grinned as he took his seat.

She was stunned but couldn't reply as everyone was waiting for them but she was able to lean in and whisper to him, "You're so paying for that, Lucky Charms."

He smiled as he wriggled his brows a couple of times.

Harry nodded at Lucas and Emily and began, "Right, welcome back, you two. We won't waste any time beating about around the bush but come straight to the point. Agent Prentiss…"

"Harry, why don't you just call her Emily? It'll be much easier." Lucas pointed out.

Harry glared at him, "Emily's INTERPOL team, as I understand will be working as protective duty for your father as well as the Ambassador, your mother, am I correct?"

Emily nodded, "Yes sir. They will be taken to a safe location tonight."

Harry nodded. "Now for you two, your assignment, you will be travelling to the capital of Syria, Damascus, and meet up with one of our -5 agents, Gerald Farraday. He will work up a dossier for the both of you."

"No more shaving for you Lucas." Ros Myers pointed. "Those men there seemed to have an affinity for facial hair, the heavier the better."

Ruth nodded, "I heard the same goes to the women too." They all smiled at Emily.

Emily looked back at them, "Well, I'll set aside my coupons for those disposable razors for another day, unless one of you ladies wants it?"

They chuckled and shook their heads.

"Focus people." Harry tapped on the table.

"Sorry," Emily apologized.

"Tariq has traced the text origin to the city of Nawa, not far from Damascus." Harry said. "Find the person and take care of it quietly, Lucas, if all goes well, you two should be back before the Council meeting. Any questions?" He asked around.

Lucas shook his head as he watched Emily who also shook her head too.

Harry stood up and said, "God speed you two." Lucas and Emily nodded as they all stood up and filed out of the office.

"Need a lift back to your apartment?" Lucas offered.

"Not yet, I have to get back to INTERPOL. I have to brief my team." Emily explained.

"Well, your carriage awaits, Snow White," He said as he led the way out of Thames House.

"What about you? Don't you have work to do?"

"I do when I deliver you back to your forest and dwarves."

"You're not very funny at all."

"You're just jealous at my style of humor."He grinned.

"Ha!" She barked as she got into his car and he drove away.

When they arrived at the INTERPOL building, they agreed for him to pick her up at 7:30 that evening.

…

In another briefing room, Emily sat down before her team.

Sam, Bob, Frankie, Walt, and Fanta were sitting at their usual seats listening to Emily's briefing.

"Why do you get to go to the exciting assignments with him?" Frankie pointed out.

"Well, unless you're fluent in Arabic or Aramaic, then you can accompany us, but you're not." Emily replied.

"Oh, I guess Boy Wonder in -5 knows the language, is that why he's going?" Frankie said again.

Emily nodded.

"Sounds like Frankie boy is jealous, Emily." Sam chuckled.

"I am most certainly not jealous of him!" Frankie was blushing.

Emily smiled, "Guys this is not a picnic we're going to. Syria is not the friendliest place currently."

"That is right. In 1948, Syria was involved in the Arab-Israeli War, aligning with the other local Arab states who were attempting to prevent the establishment of the State of Israel. This defeat was one of several trigger factors for the March 1949 Syrian coup d'état by Col. Husni al-Za'im, described as the first military overthrow of the Arab World since the start of the Second World War. This was soon followed by another overthrow, by Col. Sami al-Hinnawi, who was himself quickly deposed by Col. Adib Shishakli, all within the same year." Fanta began reading from his laptop.

"On 23 February 1966, the Military Committee carried out an intra-party overthrow, imprisoned President Amin Hafiz and designated a regionalist, civilian Ba'ath government on 1 March. Although Nureddin al-Atassi became the formal head of state, Salah Jadid was Syria's effective ruler from 1966 until 1970. The coup led to a split within the original pan-Arab Ba'ath Party: one Iraqi-led ba'ath movement ruled Iraq from 1968 to 2003. And one Syrian-led ba'ath movement was established."

"Okay, kid we get it. It's an ever changing governmental hot bed over there," Bob said. "This is not a history lesson and I'm not in a class room anymore."

The rest of the group chuckled.

"Still, it's good to know what we're dealing with. But you're right. It's neither here or there." Emily said.

"You guys are tapped to work on babysitting my parents…"

"Hot damn! We get to meet the boss' folks!" Frankie and Walt high-fived each other.

Emily shook her head, "Wait a minute, my parents are not your typical Cleaver parents."

"Who?" Fanta looked up from his laptop. "Cleaver?"

They shrugged their shoulders.

Emily closed her eyes as she shook her head, "You're killing me, don't you guys watch, 'Leave it to Beaver'?"

"What's that?" Walt asked her this time. "A show about a beaver? Is it like a cartoon show… you know that one about that…that smart…um…thingy…wears a detective hat, with a two holes cut out for his eyes, wears a trench coat…really not that smart because it was his side kick that actually solved the case…come on, don't you guys watch morning cartoons?"

"Don't know what you're talking about. I grew up watching Paddington Bear," Frankie blushed slightly as he admitted it.

"I liked the Danger Mouse, myself." Bob said.

"Oh yeah…he always try to be like a spy but fails...do you remember that episode about…" Sam sat up and faced Bob.

"Oh no you don't, guys. This is not Romper Room." Emily said to them. "We don't have time for cartoons right now and we're talking about this assignment, about my parents, in case you've forgotten. But just for your information, that cartoon show was called Secret Squirrel. It was one of my favorite cartoon shows. But let's move on,"

"INTERPOL is setting up the safe house outside of London. Sam, you know where I'm talking about," He nodded. "I'll be escorting them there after dinner from their hotel at the Waldolf Hilton after dinner. It would be about 10 or after, I'll give you a buzz. Be at that location at 9:30 tonight. And expect to be there for at least three to four days, or until our return. Question?"

"Yes, protocol on your parents, do we address them as Sir James? Or Mr. Prentiss? Ambassador Prentiss? Or Mrs. Prentiss?"

Emily smiled, "My father is pretty informal, he'll probably ask you guys to call him James, but no Jim or Jimmy, he hates that! My mother, well, that's another story, she'll insist on being formal unless she said otherwise so it is Ambassador Prentiss. And it'll just be them, no secretaries, no phones for them. It is going to kill them, or my mother to not to have any phone contact." She grinned. "Hopefully there's plenty of board games for them or a couple of decks of cards."

"You're looking forward to lock your folks down together, aren't you, Emily?"

"You have no idea, just let me know how long they last together in the same room." She smiled widely. "Wish I could be there….wait…no, I take it back. No, I'm glad I'm not going to be there."

"But they're your folks!" Bob exclaimed.

"Trust me, Bob. They may be and I love them very much but together, they're like oil and vinegar."

There was a pause before Frankie asked, "So who's the oil, who's the vinegar?"

Emily stood up, "I'll see you guys tonight."

They groaned their disappointment as Walt said, "I bet Mum is the vinegar…"

"Hey! That's Ambassador Prentiss to you!" Emily exclaimed.

…..

7:25pm…

Emily was ready as she grabbed the silk red shawl and wrapped it loosely around her shoulders to her inner elbows and let it trailed down below her waist. Her strapless sheath dress was also in the shade of red coming to a few inches above her knees, together with a pair of black stilettos, it made her legs looked longer than it was. Her only jewelry was a pair of diamond earrings which were a birthday present from her father when she had reached her 21st birthday. Leaving her dark hair down, she glanced at the cheval mirror in her bedroom and thought she looked pretty decent.

Sergio was lying on her bed, preening his fur as usual.

"So, handsome, do I pass?" she asked her faithful companion.

_Meow!_ Was his answer before he continued his licking.

"Thanks, I'll take that as a yes." She heard the buzz of her front door.

"Well, here goes!" she walked out of her room, grabbing her purse.

She opened the door admitting Lucas and caught her breath!

He looked absolutely handsome and dashing in a tuxedo, the black bow tie perfectly knotted and straight.

She couldn't stop looking at him as she noticed his gray-blue eyes were more bright blue tonight than ever and mesmerizing. "Hi." She greeted him finally after she had stared at him for a while.

If Emily was stunned at the sight of Lucas, well, Lucas was absolutely bowled over at how amazingly beautiful Emily looked tonight!

The hot red color of the dress looked stunning on her, it was low-cut but it hid her scar near her left chest barely. It showed off quite a bit of her shoulders though which was creamy and smooth. Her face was flawless, make-up expertly applied. And Lucas couldn't help but admire her legs too!

"Hi to you too," he swallowed hard as he felt his body hardened at the sight of her dazzling body. "How long is this dinner going to last?"

Emily arched a brow at him, "I don't know, maybe a couple of hours. Why?"

"I don't think we're going to last that long…I mean not the way you're looking like this, Emily…you are absolutely beautiful…more than beautiful…stunning. I think I'm running out of adjectives here." He leaned down to kiss her lightly on her cheek.

"Lucas, you can kiss me on my lips, I'm not going to break or something," She rolled her eyes.

Encouraged, he pulled her to him closer and did as she had bidden and kissed her deeply, to which she responded in kind.

When they separated, they were breathing hard as they stared at each other, "You're right, Lucas, I don't think we're going to be able to stay through after the appetizers."

He smiled, "Maybe we should get a room in the hotel. Do you think your parents will become suspicious if we made our excuses in between courses?"

She giggled as they left her apartment, "Not if we keep them distracted with something."

"Hmm? How about we introduce them to …say, Tiddlywinks or Scrabble?" He suggested.

"Tiddlywinks! They might shoot the chip into the soup of the other guests and definitely no Scrabble. The last time they played that board game, they ended up arguing about accepting the word, _ne_. It was an absolute nightmare." Emily shook her head as she climbed into the car.

"Wow, that sounds bad." He began to drive off but at the same time began to eye appreciatively at the length of the expose skin she was revealing from the short dress so much so that he almost hit the car in front of them as he slammed the brakes suddenly when he saw at the last moment it had stopped at the intersection.

"Whoa! I'd like to get there in one piece, Lucky Charms!" Emily said as she held on to the dash board.

"Sorry, I'm terribly distracted by a pair of fantastically long, perfect legs that I can't help but currently imagine bad things those legs could be doing to me."

Emily was startled for a moment before his words sunk in and she burst out laughing, "Well, said legs can't do anything till later as we're near our destination."

Lucas shook his head, "Shame, said legs and their gorgeousness could please me greatly and ease my pain for the duration. You know it's going to be the longest two hour dinner ever, Emily." He stepped out of his car and went around and opened it for her, and watched her legs admirably as she stepped out of it, giving his keys to the valet to park.

"Um… Emily," he whispered. "Are you wearing any knickers?" He tucked her hand into his elbow.

Emily blushed more as she whispered back, "Do you see any panty lines?" She looked at him saucily.

Lucas looked stunned, "You're definitely an evil witch. And I'm so bloody spell bound."

"I know."

….

End of Chapter 13


	14. Chapter 14

**Once again, I want to thank my new Beta for her wonderful...well, beta'ing job! THANK YOU!**

**and to all that visited and read and reviewed this story! Thank you!**

**.**

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 14

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They entered the posh and opulent hotel together. Emily led Lucas directly to the grand dining room.

He leaned in whispered in her ear, "They're staring at you," he said. She looked up and watched the hotel patrons about; the men were indeed staring appreciatively at her while the women watched her with envy.

"Do you think they thought I'm your escort for the night?" She grinned at him.

"What? Hmm…dressed like that? No way, all the men desired you and those women wished they had a fantastic body like yours."

Emily stopped walking, pulling him to a stop as well, "You really mean it?"

"Well, I can't say for the women but I'm a man and I bloody well desire you like hell." He said to her heatedly.

Emily's cheeks reddened as she reached up and kissed him, "Hot damn Lucas, you say nicest thing."

"I know." He grinned. "Let's go. I want to get this over with so I can ravish you afterwards."

She laughed out loud causing heads to turn their direction, "You know we have to deliver my parents to a safe house and immediately after that, we leave for Damascus."

Lucas sighed dramatically, "All work and no play certainly drives dull Jack away."

"Exactly, Jack was already dull to begin with…and let it be known we are anything but dull." She pointed out as they stood before the restaurant hostess.

"Ah, Prentiss…yes...Sir James Prentiss and Madame Ambassador are waiting for you in the private dining suite. If you'll follow me…" She smiled at Lucas widely as she led them through another door for VIPs.

Emily shook her head as they followed her as they were to the dining suite.

It was half the size of the restaurant's dining area and there was one dining table for the moment. Emily's parents were at the bar that was set up for them at the right corner of the room.

They turned at the same time and smiled at the younger couple.

Emily unhooked her arm from Lucas' and went to her father and gave him a kiss on his cheek as well as a hug, and she did the same for her mother.

Then she introduced Lucas formally to her parents.

"Sir James, Madam Ambassador," he nodded to them.

"Really Lucas, call me James. I think we're going to be quite well acquainted." James shook his hands.

Lucas nodded, "Yes sir."

"And you can call me Elizabeth." She smiled at him.

"Yes ma'am."

"Mother? Are you all right?" Emily frowned at her.

Elizabeth turned to her daughter, "Why yes, Emily. Why?"

"You…don't usually tell people to call you by your first name in the first meeting. Daddy, how many has she had already?"

"Actually your mother is drinking sparkling water, Poppet." James revealed.

"Why?" Emily asked.

"It's a choice, Emily. Come on, let's eat. I see they're ready to serve." Elizabeth nodded to the head waiter who was standing by the far door connected to the kitchen.

The men led their ladies to their dinner seats as they held their chairs out for them.

Before he went to his seat, Lucas leaned down and said to her, "I like your parents very much." Then he sat down on his seat and looked over to see a surprised Emily.

The Maître D'hôtel soon came over to take their food order from James and left.

Talk at the table was mostly politics and questions about Lucas' career with MI-5.

"Mother, you know he can't tell you much about his work at the -5." Emily pointed out over their first course which were hors d'oeuvres consisted of prosciutto and parmesan cheese wrapped around honey dew melon.

Emily stared at her plate of appetizer and leaned over to Lucas and said, "I hope the main course has bigger portion or I'm going to start eating the plate."

Lucas almost choked on his appetizer when he heard her and quickly reached for his glass of water.

"Lucas," Elizabeth looked at him. "Are you okay? Is the food no to your liking?"

Lucas nodded his head, "I'm fine, and the food quite is delicious…so far."

He glared at Emily, "Will you behave yourself?"

She grinned but she did not look at him as she shrugged her shoulders.

Second course was a soup course which they were served, a light consommé of beef. As they spooned the soup quietly, Lucas leaned over to Emily and commented quietly, "I think they had forgotten to put some things in there. Mine is clear, you can see the bottom of the bowl."

Emily chuckled and looked up to see her father staring back at her but he gave her a wink and a smile.

Her mother was luckily oblivious to everything around them.

While the servers cleared the dishes and prepared for the next course, James and Lucas began to talk about their forthcoming assignment.

"It really has been quite some time since I last visited Syria. Not since the regime has changed hands for the third time in the last five years." James shook his head as he leaned back.

"So, you had been there before?" Lucas asked him.

"Oh yes."

"Did you meet with anyone in particular?"

"What do you mean?" James arched his brow.

"The text was directed at you and the topic of the Council meeting involved talks about Syria and the sales of military aircrafts and weapons from Russia."

James assessed Lucas for a moment before he answered, "I see you've been doing your homework." He raised his glass of wine to Lucas who did likewise.

"We don't like to be caught with our pants down, Sir James."

"Daddy, who is your contact in Syria?" Emily asked him.

James shook his head as the servers brought their next course; poached sea Bass with tarragon and crushed white pepper.

Emily was enjoying the light dish when her mother asked her about her old job.

"So Emily, do you miss the BAU?" Elizabeth asked her.

"Not really mother. I missed my team but not the politics underneath, all the red tape in the Bureau." She shook her head.

"Your team? Oh, let me see if I remember, it's been so long. They were quite an efficient group." She proceeded to relate to her husband and Lucas about the case the BAU helped with solving the kidnapping of the father of her former housekeeper.

"As it turned out, it was the daughter who had set up the whole elaborate scheme to scam her parents for money just because she wanted to get out of her life."

"But they discovered her scheme?" James inquired.

"Oh yes, at the cost of her father's ear and finger…"

"Mother! I don't think this is a very appropriate topic to converse at the moment." Emily pointed.

Elizabeth nodded, "You're right, Emily. I apologize. How are they? Do you still keep in contact with them?"

Emily nodded, "Yes I do, Mother."

"All of them?"

Emily eyed her mother, "Well, most of them. What are you getting at?"

Elizabeth shrugged elegantly, "Nothing, just asking."

"No, there is something specific you want to ask me."

"Elizabeth, I think you should let it rest. The past is the past." James said sternly.

Lucas looked at Emily and saw that she was getting upset.

"I was referring to Agent Aaron Hotchner, weren't you two close or something?"

Emily stiffened, "No, we were not, mother."

"Oh, I thought you were." Elizabeth pressed on.

"Well, no. You are wrong." She had lost her appetite as she put her fork down.

"Elizabeth, just drop it. Now." James shook his head.

Again, the servers cleared their dishes away and they were alone.

"My only contact in Syria," James continued from the previous conversation. "He was killed in a terrorist bomb blast five years ago. We've known each other for over 10 years."

Lucas nodded slowly, "Do you have his name?"

James nodded, "Raad."

"Luck, kind of ironic." Emily said softly.

James smiled at his daughter, "Raad did have some of the damndest luck when we were running from enemies. He was always so positive and idealistic in his country. When the government of Syria fell, Raad was determined to fight but of course he was only a few against the many. I used to call him David, going against Goliath. I would tease him and ask him where his sling was. He would grin and shrug and tell me that Allah is his sling."

"How old was Raad when he was…?" Lucas asked him."

James looked up and saw Lucas, as if he was surprised to see that he was back in the present, "I'm not sure…he would never tell me truthfully. I estimated him to be about early 20s."

Emily shook her head, "When did it happen?"

"Five years ago before I was made a member of the NSC. Emily, whoever sent me that text has ties with Raad, I just have a gut feeling. He and I converse mainly in Aramaic because we didn't trust anyone else."

"And his hometown is in Nawa." Lucas pointed out.

James shook his head, "No, he was born north of Damascus but not in Nawa. Did you know that the city of Nawa was rumored to be the dwelling place of Noah and his son Sham was buried there? And the tomb of Job was also located in that city. It is a small city but there is so much history."

James looked up and saw the servers were back with their next course; braised leg of lamb with lemon herbed sauce.

Emily leaned to Lucas, "You'd think there's a shortage of sheep around the city. Hey, I think you've got a bigger slice than I do." She jerked her chin at his plate.

Lucas moved his plate slightly away from her, "Kindly remove your eyes and fork from my plate. I think they're promoting healthier lesser proportions for their guests."

Emily snorted, "This sauce itself is loaded with cholesterol and fat, I highly doubt they're concern with our health."

"Did you just… snort?" Lucas eyed at her with amusement.

She grinned, "I might have. Why?"

"I like it, it's cute." He tapped the tip of her nose.

Emily's parents saw Lucas and Emily playful banter and exchanged smiles.

After their fifth course, they continued again.

"The city of Nawa is now more or less Muslim predominant. The Iman Yadha Ign Sharaf al Nawawi about 1277, a prominent Iman who was a very recognized scholar and judge. He wrote quite a few books on Islamic studies and a follower of the Prophet Muhammad."

"You seemed to know quite a bit of this Iman, Daddy."

"That is because Raad became a faithful follower of Nawawi before his untimely death. He believed the Iman should be revered just as high as the Prophet himself."

"Such radical talks could get one killed in small towns." Emily remarked.

"That is what I believed happened to Raad."

All too soon, their sixth course arrived; it was beef fricassée with a side of asparagus and creamy butternut squash.

Emily saw that the beef cutlet hardly needed a knife to cut as it was tender as she used her fork to pull the meat apart.

"Okay, I have to admit, this is quite delicious." Emily said.

"Yes, it is, just don't know why it's called fricassée, why can't they say, veal cutlets?"

Emily shrugged, "Sounds fancier. Maybe it happened by accident when some French chef tasted his creation and said _'Fric! Al see this! It's a superb dish!'_ " she mimicked a French accent to make it sound more comical than should be.

Lucas began to laugh as his face turned red, his eyes crinkled in the corners, Emily soon joined him. "That is a horrible description."

"I dare you come up with a better one," Emily said.

Lucas thought for a while before he leaned over to her, "Okay, what about his one; _Where's the bloody cutlets? Fric! Ah see it! Stop fondling the damn meat Francois!"_

They began to laugh quietly when they saw Elizabeth giving them weird stares.

Emily nodded, "I like it but fondling?"

Lucas nodded, "Well, it was either that or massage the meat, fondling sound more comical." He held his hands up as he squeezed his hand together for emphasis.

Emily giggled more as they made fun of their food.

"Poppet," her dad called out when the servers left with the dishes. "When you get to Damascus, you two will make sure you are in keeping with the culture of the region. Nawa is an ancient city, and culture is very important to them. They will not take kindly to you walking beside Lucas, always remember to walk behind him."

Lucas grinned at Emily who glared at him. "We shall see. Maybe you should be wearing the woman's traditional dress, and I'll wear the man's outfit. That'll freak them out." she laughed.

"Emily!" James called out sternly. "This is serious."

"Sorry Daddy." Emily looked down.

James shook his head as their final course came, "I'm still not comfortable with this assignment. If Syria finds out who you really are, there's not a lot we can do, you can forget about a rescue party coming down to get you two."

"Sir, we'll do our best to avoid exposure, and as I'd said before, I'll take care of your daughter and ensure her safety and quick return." Lucas looked deep in her eyes as he spoke.

James saw his sincerity and nodded, "Very well, Lucas, I'll hold you to it. Emily is my only daughter."

"And mine as well." Elizabeth said.

Lucas nodded, "She will be treated as a precious cargo."

Emily leaned forward, "Hello all, I'm still here."

"I'm well aware of that, Poppet. I have all the faith in you but, this is no walk in the park." He spooned his raspberry sorbet into his mouth.

"We'll be careful, Daddy." Emily assured him. She reached over and 'took' a spoonful of sorbet from Lucas' bowl.

"Hey…hey…hey…you sorbet burglar!" Lucas moved his bowl from her again.

She laughed, "They are not generous with their portions! I swear they're trying to starve us here."

"Would you like to split a pizza after we deliver your parents to the safe house?"

She hesitated a moment, "Um, Lucas…I'm delivering them myself. It's not that I don't trust you but this is INTERPOL rules. I'm sorry."

He shrugged, "It's okay. I'll pick you up at your apartment at…?"

"You're not angry?"

"Not at all, MI-5 has safe houses too that I'm not at liberty to divulge to you." He shook his head.

"Thanks Lucky Charms."

He turned to grin at her. "So… pizza? Time?"

She named the time to meet him at her apartment. "Oh, and a side of anchovies, please."

He stared at her in disbelief, "Don't tell me Serge likes pizza too?"

She grinned, "He loves pizza but the anchovies are not for him, nope, it's for me. I love that stuff but I'll share it with him."

"Yuck!" You'll remember to brush your teeth at least five times before we kiss?" Lucas said.

"I'll even gargle with mouth wash, just for you." They stood up from the dining table and walked out of the room.

"Please do," he shook his head.

Lucas and Emily stayed at the lobby while her parents went to their rooms to fetch their luggage.

As soon as they reappeared, the Prentiss climbed into James' vehicle. Lucas left on his own. They were to meet in a few hours at her apartment.

Emily hopped into the driver's seat and drove out of the hotel.

"Well," James began as he looked out the window. "That was a very interesting dinner tonight."

Emily nodded.

"I like this Lucas North." Elizabeth commented.

James looked at his wife, "Oh? You do?"

"He seemed very smart and very protective of Emily."

"How do you know? I don't see that yet."

Elizabeth patted his hand, "It's okay, James. A mother knows."

James arched his brow at his wife but he didn't say anything. Privately he agreed with her.

In the short time he spent with him, he sensed Lucas' sincerity and his feelings for his daughter.

And she returned his feelings, he saw.

Emily was particular with whom she chose for her…partner which meant there weren't many, thank goodness!

Oh yes, despite their distance and separate career, James managed to keep tabs of his only daughter.

The real her whom not many people knew.

He knew about her work with the CIA, the INTERPOL, the FBI, and subsequently back with the INTERPOL. Although there were certain details he was not familiar with but he was an intelligent man and he could figure out what happened to her when she was captured in Boston by that Irish mercenary Doyle, among other tortures and sufferings she had endured through the years, since her kidnapping in Hague, twenty years ago.

He wished she had chosen a safer career like his, as a National Security Council member. But he knew she would not like it. She liked excitement and action. Just like him, when he was much younger.

Yes, not many people knew but he was an undercover operative for the U.S. government many years ago. Although the agency no longer existed and his files were now non-existent, the spy business was the same back over twenty years ago as it was now. Apparently his daughter had this gene.

He was more than proud of her achievements so far but at the same time the danger she placed herself in was far more precarious now than it was before. INTERPOL dealt with terrorists from everywhere while the FBI was a domestic agency.

Why couldn't his daughter chose a safer career like a medical field? Or a lawyer?

James sighed inwardly as he looked at her profile as she drove on; she was beautiful, yes a father's biased opinion but he loved her as would an indulgent father would his only child.

As she drove into a long drive way, James frowned; the drive way looked familiar…

He leaned forward, "Poppet, is this where I think this is?" He looked about him but it was hard to see out as it was quite dark.

Elizabeth was also looking out the window, "But this is impossible! Emily, you said a safe house…this? A safe house?"

Emily grinned as she pulled up near the front of a large country farm house, the lights inside were lit.

James and Elizabeth climbed out of the car and looked about them and smiled in amazement.

Emily looked over the top of the car as she watched their reaction.

They turned around as one and looked at her again, "How is this possible?"

"Remember Godfather was indicted for tax evasion earlier this year?"

They nodded.

"Well, he had to sacrifice one of his properties to avoid charges and I offered to buy it from him."

"How much did you have to pay for this? Poppet, this is not a cheap property!" James was stunned.

"To spite the government's face, he sold it pretty cheap…" she named the price which was much less than half the cost of its worth.

James laughed, "Well, then I should say, you were being pretty shrewd in your investment. Congratulations Poppet!"

"Thanks Daddy."

"But Emily," her mother stopped as she stared at the house. "You said you turned it into a safe house?"

"That's right, no one will even suspect it."

"I think it's perfect. Is your team in there?"

"Yes. They better be." She said as she opened the door. "Honey! I'm home!" She greeted to her team who were standing in the lobby waiting to receive the Prentiss family.

When they saw Emily in her dress, Sam and Bob wolf whistled. Frankie and Walt blushed deeply as he couldn't keep his eyes off her legs!

Fanta was blushing as well as he tried not to stare at her.

"Well look at you, Snow, playing dress up and looking pretty as can be!" Sam teased her.

"Gee Emily, I didn't know you had legs!" Walt finally blurted out. "And those things up there too. Very nice." He was pointing at her breasts!

"They're call boobies, Walt." Bob said as he shook his head.

"Hey, what's that ugly scar on your …near your boobies?" Sam indicated her right scar.

She shook her head, "I don't have time for a bedtime story for you boys tonight."

"AW!" They all sounded disappointed.

"Maybe Grandma will." Fanta grinned.

"_My mother_ does not know about it, neither does my dad, kid."

They laughed but their laughter died off instantly when James and Elizabeth stepped inside with their luggage.

Emily introduces her team to her parents. They shook hands and greeted them cordially.

"Sam is in charge here, Daddy, so if you have any questions, you can direct them to him." Emily nodded to her second in command who waved his hand.

"Oh, mother, and Daddy…we will need to take your cell phones and laptops. Sorry you can't use them while you're here. It's just for a few days until we take care of this."

James and Elizabeth grudgingly took their electronic devices and gave them to Fanta who assure them that no one would have access to them as they would be locked up in a safe.

"So, I can't access the internet or call my members…what can I do? I'm not use to sitting idle." James looked around the house and its familiar pictures.

"We have plenty of board games…but Emily said this used to be a Summer home you and your family came over to spend when she was young." Bob pointed out.

James nodded, "It most certainly was, we have spent many memories here, allow me to show you the den…unless you have something else to do?"

Bob shook his head, "No at the moment, sir." James and Bob left the main room as they talked on.

"Would like a drink? Or a snack? We just stocked the pantry and 'fridge, Madame Ambassador." Frankie asked Elizabeth.

"I'd like a drink but I'll accompany you to the kitchen, it's been a long time since I've been in there and it's the warmest place in the whole house. Emily used to beg for cookies and milk from Cook after dinner…" Her voice trailed off as they disappeared into the kitchen.

Emily smiled, glad that her parents were not feeling ill at ease in here; she was glad she had decided to use her godfather's house as a safe house, somewhere her parents had spent so many happy years before she was born, and before they had separated all those years ago. She hoped that they might reconnect themselves while they're here, either that or they would kill each other as well as her team!

Getting into the car, she drove back into the city and back into her apartment…and Lucas.

She smiled as she recalled him in his tux, he looked really good in it tonight!

Then, she thought that tomorrow about this time, she and Lucas would be in Syria…land of danger. She hoped their assignment was an easy one. She had a pretty good idea where to begin, the only obstacle was her getting in where not many would admit a female.

…..

End of Chapter 14


	15. Chapter 15

**To all Criminal Minds fans, particularly to the Emily/Hotch shippers. I know you are pretty pissed at the direction of this story. Rest assured, we're not done yet. Granted, Emily is currently in the middle of another country helping her dad and having 'fun' much to your annoyance. Don't worry, as soon as she returns to London, our dark Yank will be back to pull Emily back into his neck of the woods…and oh yeah, so is Beth. So please hang in there! **

**Thank you!**

**J.**

INTEROL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 15

.

When Emily arrived on the landing of her apartment door, she instantly smelled pizza!

She grinned when she opened the door to her apartment and saw Lucas sitting by the kitchen counter with Sergio, who was contently eating his share of another of his favorite foods.

"That looks very domestic," She was leaning against the inside of the door.

Emily smiled when she saw he was still in his tux, looking devilishly handsome.

Emily walked towards them as he remarked, "Serge and I were just having a chat about his preference for cheesy pizza."

"Oh yeah? That boy is a hog, he'll eat anything except veggies." She tried to reach for a slice but Lucas held her wrist and shook his head, "No, Agent Prentiss. No pizza for you yet. Not until you pay me first." He said as he pulled her close to him.

Emily frowned as she said, oblivious to his darkened looks, "Oh, how much do I owe you?"

Lucas shook his head again, "This pizza delivery man will not accept legal pounds…so it'll be some other form of payment before the lady can eat."

Emily smiled slowly as she looked at him and said smoothly, "Pizza _boy_ might not be able to handle what I have in mind in the form of payment…" She untied his bow tie and pulled it off from his collar walking away from him as she let her scarf slide onto the bare wooden floor and made her way to her bedroom, then he saw a black stiletto shoe hit the floor, and then the other.

Lucas shook his head as he muttered, "Witch…"and then laughed out loud and followed her into her room, after he caught her red dress and shut the door.

…

They took the red eye flight and it took them about six hours flight time to travel to Damascus.

Their MI-5 contact, Gerald or Gerry, Farraday was at the airport waiting for them.

Gerry, Emily saw, was not your typical -5 agent. He was a rather eccentric Brit and very egregious. He openly leered at Emily and threw insults at Lucas. But the two knew they were being tested – it was the Syrian way; men insulted each other as part of their culture.

"You know Emily," Gerry grinned at her. "When you come back from wherever that hell-hole you're going to, how about we lose your bodyguard and we have some fun?"

Emily smiled at him and shook her head.

Lucas was fuming but so far he kept it to himself but he knew that soon, he was going to lose it and the two of them were to come to blows. Judging by the sizes of both of them, Lucas was the bigger and stronger of them.

If Emily thought she was terrible at driving in the streets of London, Gerry thought he was the famed Indy car racer Michael Andretti! He was definitely not driving an Indy race car but a ten year old compact car that had seen its better days with cracked leather seats and smelled of century old stale cigarette smoke.

"Where are we going now, Gerry?" Lucas asked him as they were weaving about the dusty and busy streets of down town Damascus so far.

Gerry was having a blast, honking the car horn as he stuck his head out and yelling at everyone to get out of his way.

"Bloody tourists! They're everywhere! There are roads for the cars and sidewalks for the bloody idiots and yet, they're walking everywhere! And wearing stupid hideous bright colored clothing, sticking out like sore thumbs. Why don't they bloody wear a stupid sign that says, Look! I'm a stupid tourist, bloody hit me!' Ah! There! Look at that!" He pointed at a group of Japanese tourists attempting to cross the busy intersection with their stereotypical video cameras affixed on their faces or their cell phones held in front of them. "I ought to run over all the sorry buggers!"

Emily and Lucas were laughing more at Gerry than the comical sight around them.

"There goes our plans of going about incognito," Lucas pressed against Emily as he whispered into her ear.

"I like Gerry! He is quite a character!" She giggled.

"Don't encourage him please," Lucas eyed him darkly. "He is eyeing you as if you're breakfast, lunch, and dinner…and definitely dessert."

Emily broke down in laughter.

Gerry glanced at them in the rear view mirror and smiled, "Hey Emily, you think I'm amusing, don't you? Well, I can show you more amusing things around town. I'm serious, when you're done, we will have fun, just you and me. Sorry Lucas. Third leg…gooseberry and all that. You know what I mean."

Lucas didn't reply but growled quietly.

Emily arched her brow at him.

Finally, Gerry stopped in front of a simple duplex and hopped out. "Okay, we're here at my office."

He walked to the gated door, unlocked it and unlocked another wooden door before he led them in.

They saw that the interior was not what it seemed from the outside.

There were multiple computer screens currently running on make-shift wooden tables. A man was sitting in front of the screens watching a soccer game at the moment.

Emily saw that the kitchen was in dire need of cleaning and dishes were piled high in the sink.

Gerry saw where she was looking and grinned, "Oh don't mind that, our maid quit on us a few days ago and we haven't had the chance to screen for another one. Good help is really hard to find."

Emily smiled as Lucas came up beside her, "Do you have our dossiers ready?"

Gerry grinned, "Why the rush, Lucas? How about you two spend the night here in town and we'll get started tomorrow?"

Lucas walked over and stood directly in front of Gerry, towering him by a foot and a half, "Gerry, this assignment is very important to both Emily and I. I'm sure Harry Pearce has told you the importance and haste of it?"

Gerry swallowed hard, "Y...ye…yes…he might have mentioned it. Haste, gotcha, be right back." He left and disappeared into another room.

Lucas nodded before he stepped back and stood next to Emily and smiled at her, "I think I got my point across."

She smiled and nodded, "Oh I'm sure you did, real macho of you."

"I thought so."

Gerry came out of a room carrying a case and set it on the table and turned to his companion, "David! Get your arse here and give me a hand, you lazy piece of shit!" He turned back to them and opened the metal case while his partner came sauntering by and leaned against the wall by the table they were gathering around, he was staring at Emily until Lucas stood in front of her that this David put his head down.

Pulling two folders out of the case, Gerry opened them and began reading them, "Okay, Lucas…and Emily…you're a married couple…" He looked up at them quizzically, "Wait, you two aren't married, right?"

They shook their heads, Gerry sighed with relief and mumbled, "That's good, I still have a chance with her…"

Lucas growled again.

"You two are now graduates of University of Damascus, working on your doctorate on religion…blah, blah, blah…you get the picture." he waved his hand about. "Lucas is now Nijad. And Emily…" he looked at her and smiled, "Of course…is easy Zaynah."

Emily smiled, "Beautiful...aww, how nice of you Gerry, thank you."

Lucas narrowed his gaze at her, "I should be grateful he didn't come up some ridiculous name for me like…like…Iyad or close to it."

Emily chuckled, "Pigeon! Ha! Maybe…Okay…okay..." He stood over her and pulled her close to him by her waist.

"I like Nijad; Tall, dominant. Very fitting." She nodded.

"I do too."

Gerry came back with an armful of colorful material, "Head scarves, take a pick. You too, Lucas…no, Nijad." He grinned. "You'll be wearing the traditional men's thawb…oh and Emily…no…er, Zaynah, got to get use to your new Arabic names. Your outfit is in the bedroom, first door to your right. Then we'll have to get your passport photos and other travel documents."

Emily nodded and walked towards the hallway Gerry indicated.

She saw in the bedroom, similarly in a disheveled state, wrinkled her nose and picked the garment that was hung by the closet door. The garment was called an abayah, a loose fitting robe that covered her from neck down to her feet. It was dark navy blue in color. Emily pulled it over her outfit; at least she was wearing a Tee-shirt and slacks so she would be comfortable underneath the traditional clothing. Now she needed her head covering.

Walking out, she almost didn't recognize Lucas…or Nijad who was now garbed in the traditional Arab man's headdress called the kaffiyeh, which was a large white cotton square head scarf over his head, held by a black woolen rope called the igal around his forehead.

He was also wearing the thawb, a traditional loose garment that reaches to his ankles and wrists and it was collarless. It was made of cotton and white in color with gold embroidery around the edges.

Emily walked to the table and picked up a dark blue material and pulled it over her head and wrapped it around her head, covering her hair and neck until only her face was exposed.

"Ah, still looking beautiful despite covering that beautiful shiny hair…pity." Gerry shook his head sadly.

Emily smiled as she stood before Lucas and said, "Now all you need is a mean looking beard, right Gerry?"

"What? Oh! Yes! David! How could you forget about the beard? Come on, have a seat over here, David will put that on you." Gerry began muttering a string of cuss words as he swapped places with his partner who was setting up a camera on a tripod and a back drop and lightings.

David picked up another case and set it on the table and soon began to work on putting a fake mustache and beard on Lucas' jaw.

Emily saw that, despite Gerry's grumblings, David was quite the make-up artist. As soon as he was finished, she was impressed, Lucas did looked as if the beard was real and part of him.

Lucas looked at his reflection on the hand mirror, "I think I looked quite distinguished…hmmm, I really like it." He raised his brows and added, "I might grow a real one when we return home, what do you think, Emily?"

She tilted her head at him, "I don't know, it's growing on me…and you do look very…distinguished…noble."

He grinned, "Noble? I like that…noble."

She smacked his shoulder playfully, "Don't get too carried away…Iyad!"

"I won't, Zaynah and it's Nijad not pigeon." He captured her hand and kissed it.

She giggled, "That beard does tickles, I'm going to have to get use to it." She was leaning towards Lucas…

"WAIT!"

They snapped their heads and turned to Gerry who exclaimed to them.

"The most crucial part of your disguises…your wedding bands," he held up two gold bands, a small one and a large one.

Lucas stood up from his chair and looked at Emily, taking the small one from Gerry's hand and slid it on her ring finger on her left hand.

Emily also took the ring from Gerry and slid the cold metal band onto Lucas' finger on his left hand and looked up at him.

"Well, you two are now committed to each other. For better or for worse, blah, blah, blah…fortunately I'm not an ordained priest or you two would be bound legally. Ha!" Gerry laughed as he moved to the camera set up.

Emily looked at the band on her left hand, not used to the strange weight yet.

"It's not permanent, Zaynah." Lucas said softly, watching her expression.

She nodded, "I know but it still feels different."

"Okay! You two love birds…passport photos time. Come on over! Emily, you first!" Gerry waved them over. David was now behind the camera waiting for them.

Gerry nodded as he supervised their positions on how they posed. After that, he waved back her over to the prop table and opened another case and showed her a tray of gold jewelry and as soon as Lucas was done, he came over and Gerry handed him a few stacks of Syrian currency, also in pounds.

"As a prominent doctorate, your status is quite wealthy and you'll have access to money easily. As your wife, she should be dressed richly and finely, right Lucas?"

Lucas smiled at him and picked up several pieces of gold bracelets and handed them to Emily who put them on, as well as a few rings and necklaces as he helped her put them on.

"I feel as though I'm about to be sold to the highest bidder."

Gerry smiled as his demeanor was back to his old self, "And I'll be offering the highest price for you."

Lucas shook his head, "She is definitely not for sale." He put his arm around her shoulder possessively.

Gerry grinned at them, "you two really look like a married couple, very convincing. Harry certainly knows how to pick his agents."

Lucas and Emily exchanged knowing looks.

Gerry brought out quite a few cases for both Emily and Lucas to inspect and packed for their new identities as well. As scholars, they would need; laptops, notepads, digital cameras, sketch pads, drawing pencils, stationery needed for note takings.

Two hours later, more luggages, with new sets of clothing packed as well, they were ready.

Gerry helped Lucas loaded them into another vehicle, this one a better looking SUV.

They were ready to make their journey to Nawa, Emily thanked David for his help as he handed them their new credentials, and they had to leave their current ones and their weapons here in the -5 house.

"Oh, I almost forgot, Lucas…come with me, you too Emily." Gerry waved them over and they followed him to room in the far end of the house.

The room was quite barren but for two large heavy safes in a corner of the room. Gerry approached one of the safe and opened it and handed Lucas a cell phone, "Untraceable but with a special encrypted GPS locator only MI-5 has a tracker code. You can call Harry when you're ready and done, it's secure."

Then he brought out a black velvet box and opened it and showed it to them, "Take this, it will protect you also." Gerry said, in a more serious tone.

It was a Smith and Wesson low capacity 9mm hand gun and an extra clip. Lucas thanked Gerry as he checked the weapon and tucked it into his boot.

"I guess I don't get one too." Emily said enviously.

Gerry shook his head, "Sorry, women can't carry concealed weapons, definitely will get your beloved husband in big trouble, like permanent jail time."

Lucas smiled, "Oh my dearest, you wouldn't do that to me, would you? Think of our future children."

Emily giggled, "Kids! Bunch of brats! I'm not raising them by myself."

Lucas and Gerry laughed with her. "I can see you with about a dozen of them." Lucas said.

"A dozen!" Emily exclaimed as they made their way out to the house. "No way, maybe one…or two, no more."

Lucas stopped laughing as he looked at her seriously, "Two…a boy and a girl."

Emily stopped walking, turned to stare at him, "A boy…and a girl? What if it's a girl first then a boy?" She asked softly.

He nodded, "Even better. A small little beautiful girl that looks like you…"

"And a small little boy that looks just like you." She finished his sentence.

"Um…" Gerry grinned, "Do you need some privacy?"

They turned to him and grinned, "No, we need to get on our way, Gerry." Lucas said.

Handing Lucas a map and keys, "Here you go, my friend. Take care of the beautiful Emily. And good luck to you too." He held out his hand to shake.

Lucas nodded, "Thank you for your help Gerry, I'll take care of her." He shook his hand and they separated as Lucas held the door for Emily.

"Gerry thank you so much for all you've done," she gave him a quick hug.

Gerry nodded and waved them away, "Yes, yes…get a move on...away you go."

Waving to him, Lucas and Emily drove away from him.

Handing her the map, "You are now the navigator. Tell me where to go."

Emily opened the map and quickly found the city and began telling Lucas where to go; Nawa was about of 108 kilometers southeast from Damascus.

….

"Okay, at the rate you're driving, we'll get there oh…five minutes ago." She was holding onto the dashboard as he steered around the traffic.

He slowed down slightly as he glanced over her way. "Scared?"

"Not really, well...unless Gerry told you the speed limit is whatever you want to do."

He chuckled as he eased the speed slightly.

"There, how's that?"

She nodded.

Halfway towards their destination, Lucas pulled the vehicle to the shoulder behind another SUV where three men were arguing, a tire lying behind their vehicle.

"Stay here, don't get out." He told her.

She nodded but lowered the window so she could hear what was going on.

Lucas got out of the car and speaking in Arabic, asked them if they needed help.

They turned to him and soon engaged in a heated argument for some time. Emily began to worry as she couldn't hear what was going on but it had something to do with the tire on the ground as they kept pointing at it.

Twenty minutes later, Lucas came around to her side, "These men are heading to Nawa, they are going to some family wedding and their vehicle is broken, the axle underneath is cracked. So I'm offering them a lift."

She nodded, "Yeah, that's no problem…we're heading that way too." He nodded.

There was a pause.

"Um, Emi…Zaynah. You're going to have to ride in the back…"

"Oh! Yeah, forgot about the sexist rules." Lucas opened the door for her and them opened the back door for her again. She gave him a wry look before she hopped in.

He then waved the three men over.

Getting in, the men nodded at her but at once began talking rapidly as Lucas merged back into the road.

Speaking in Arabic, they inquired Lucas where they were going to which he said they were staying in Nawa for a few days as he and his wife are scholars on Ancient Biblical studies and its impact in the Arab world. The three men nodded excitedly and began telling them that they were heading to the very city where it was rich with biblical history. Noah and his son were supposedly lived and buried there, as well as the Ark.

Lucas asked if they knew the exact location and the three men began to discuss the best route to get there and as it was a tourist attraction, not many tourists visited the areas as it was a hard to reach destination.

Then they entered Nawa. Emily saw that it was pretty dry and different from most small city she had visited before. She noticed the buildings were either one or two floors high. Mostly stoned built as well. The windows were all wooden and old, she felt as if she had stepped back in time about 100 years ago in the ancient Rome or Greek era.

The men directed Lucas where to drop them off and after many thanks to him, Lucas drove around back to where he had spotted a hotel when they entered the city.

"Pretty friendly lot, aren't they?" Emily said.

"Very," he grinned as he pulled into a parking space and got out of the car.

"Let's go check in, shall we?"

She nodded as he opened the door for her.

Half an hour later, Emily removed her headdress and cooled down while Lucas brought in the luggage and bags. Emily had offered to help but they knew that Arabian women, especially married spouses were not supposed to carry baggage, it was the job of their husband.

So her 'husband' was now lugging their various bags to and from the car to the hotel room.

Once it was done, Lucas wasted no time in removing his kaffiyeh off his head, his hair was matted to his skull as he fell backwards on the bed, letting the giant fan that was rotating above his head.

"Ah! My poor head can breathe again." He closed his eyes and rested lightly. Emily who was lying beside him turned to face him saw that his hair was wringing wet with sweat, decided to let him be as she too closed her eyes and soon they fell asleep.

….

End of Chapter 15

Author's note: yes…there will be a couple more chapters of her in Syria and we'll be back in London.

Thanks again, guest reviewer Taylor for your kind review!

Thank You!


	16. Chapter 16

**Thank you so much to my beta – Magpie of Silver! This is fantastic!**

**And thanks to all for reading this story!**

**Here's the conclusion of the Syrian Mission, or is it?**

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 16

.

"Here have some water, Zaynah." Lucas offered to his 'wife'. They were now conversing in Arabic.

It was mid morning they were 'working' near a monument known to be a burial site of Noah and his son Sham.

Emily gratefully drank from the water bottle. In the arid environment, she found it was vital to keep hydrated especially when they were on the outskirts of Nawa on the hilltop in the exposed sun, the head dress provided some help in keeping from getting sunburned.

As she was placing the water bottle back into the cooler, she saw a group of people climbing up towards near them.

Watching them peripherally, she saw that the main focus was a middle aged man who was handicapped as they were carrying him up the hill. Two men who were either his nurses or sons were carrying him up and a woman carrying bags lumbering behind them.

Judging by their outfits, they were also Arabians. The handicapped man spotted Lucas and they nodded at each other in polite acknowledgement.

Emily couldn't help but observe the man was severely burned as part of his face was burned, the left side of his face looked to be melted off.

And his left arm and leg were missing as well.

The profiler in her speculated that it might have been a bomb blast that caused his disability.

On and on they climbed, she watched until they disappeared.

"Hey, focus...over here." Lucas commented as he pointed his camera at her.

She shook her head and said, "I know, I'm just being observant," and turned back to her laptop.

Lucas came down to sit beside her, "He looked as if he was a victim of an explosion blast, all signs pointed to that."

"What's up there anyways?" Emily asked.

He shrugged, "I think it's a shrine or something. I recalled those three men mentioned it as being a shrine for the revered scholar Nawawi."

"The revered Muslim scholar? Why would they put the shrine up there? Kind of close to the biblical site of Noah's son and Job. Muslims and Christians."

"That's true, but if you look around there are not many people about." Lucas said.

As the sun became hotter, they decided to pack their things and head back to the hotel. Just as they were about to drive off, Lucas saw one of the men who were in that particular party, came running down yelling for help. Lucas hopped out of the car and stopped him and inquired the man.

Soon he found out that his brother had taken a fall down the path and had possibly broken his ankle or foot.

Lucas nodded and gone up to help after he took a first aid kit with him. Emily also got out of the car and began to climb up and soon saw Lucas wrapping the ankle of a man.

They nodded at her as she approached them. Lucas introduced her to them.

"This is Barakah, his twin sons, Fadi and Hadi. And Fadi's wife, Fatima. My wife, Zaynah."

Emily greeted them politely, "May Allah bless you and your family prosperously."

Barakah nodded, "And may Allah bless you with more for your family."

Lucas looked about him, "Are you ready to return home? I will carry you," he offered.

Barakah shook his head, "it is too much inconvenience, kind sir. You must return to your pretty bride."

Lucas grinned, "She will understand that your need is more important."

The elderly man then nodded. "Then Nijad, I will accept your hospitality. Allah is generous today."

His family nodded in agreement.

Lucas then lifted the mean up as if he weighed no more than a child and carried him down the hill.

Emily and his family followed them down as well.

Lucas put the man in their vehicle while the women decided to walk all the way to their house which was not far from the outskirt.

Emily and Fatima had a pleasant walk by themselves as Fatima led the way. She told Emily that she had been married to Fadi for a little more than six years but they did not have any children, she had miscarried twins in a terrible accident five years ago.

Emily offered her condolence to her loses, "To lose two children without their chances of not knowing what the world was out there yet." She privately thought of the child she lost voluntarily when she was very young

Fatima said, "The loss was harder for my father-in-law because I can no longer have any children." She hung her head down.

Emily's heart went out to her. There were not words to describe something terrible and horrific. In an Arab culture, children were the most important thing in a family. To carry on the father's line. She knew Fatima must feel a failure. Now it was up to her husband's twin brother Hadi to continue the tradition, or her husband could marry again, Arabians still practiced polygamy.

As they approached the modest house, Emily saw Lucas standing by the front door waving at them. She looked at Fatima, wondering what the matter was; worried that it might have been either the father or the son with the broken leg, the two women hurried along.

"What is it?" Emily asked Lucas.

He pointed at the front door of the house and Emily turned to see what he was indicating; Emily gasped! A sling!

"I think we hit something!" Lucas whispered.

"I think you're right but who exactly is this?" She wondered.

"Can't you guess? Partially burned body, missing limbs?" He pointed.

Emily shook her head, "Don't tell me that is Raad?" Emily said.

"Nobody called me by that name in a very long time!" Lucas and Emily whipped their heads around and saw the man Bakarah standing on his crutches near them.

Emily spoke to him in Aramaic, "Do you remember a man named James Prentiss?"

Raad nodded as he replied in Aramaic also, "I have not heard that name in many years, how do you know him? And how do you know the ancient language? You are very young to speak it."

"James Prentiss is my father. He is the one who told me about you. He taught me to read, write and speak Aramaic. My father thought you were killed in an explosion five years ago."

He shook his head, "Fatima saved my life but she lost my grandsons in the process. Now she cannot have any more sons. But I am forever beholden to her for saving my life. Why are you here?"

"My father received a text message, it warned him to not go through the meeting at the National Security Council Meeting. Did you send that message?'

Raad shook his head, "No. I stopped dreaming of my freed Syria when they took my arm and leg. I am grateful to be still alive. Now I live to serve Allah."

"Then you have no idea who sent the message, even though it was traced here in Nawa."

Raad stared at her then shook his head, "I am sorry, daughter of my friend, I cannot be of use to you…unless…" He hesitated a moment.

"What is it? Raad, please this is important for my father." She urged.

He nodded, "I need to talk to your father."

Emily paused.

Then she turn to Lucas, "Nijad, I need to use the secure phone. He wants to talk to Daddy."

Lucas thought for a moment, "A private moment?" She walked close to him and they conversed quietly, "Do you trust him?"

"I do. Nijad?"

Lucas nodded, "I'll be right back." He left and went to the SUV to retrieve the cell phone.

Standing outside the house, Emily dialled the number to her INTERPOL team, "Doc? This is…Snow White. I need to talk to the King." She said cryptically. "Keep the apple pie cooking." It was her code word to Sam to keep the phone line recording.

"Yes, Your Highness." He replied.

"Snow White?" She heard her father came on the line.

"Daddy, this is Zaynah, I found a phoenix in the desert, one you had lost five years ago."

"A phoenix? Five years ago...dear me, it can't be! My dear I am...is he well? I...yes, I remember now." She heard enlightenment sounded in his voice and shock. "I…I…of course! May I talk to …him?"

"In a moment, he said he had no idea who sent the text."

"No? That can't be…unless…I need to talk to Raad now." James insisted.

Walking into the house, she handed the phone to Raad.

He nodded his thanks and began talking to James in a soft tone that Emily could barely hear.

Ten minutes later, Raad gave the phone back to Emily. He looked up at her and said, "Russia."

"What?"

"Russia and Syria made an agreement to buy more defensive military planes and just opened talks of more nuclear weapons too."

"Raad, who made the coalition? The pact? Who brought them together?"

He began to cry, "My son. Please leave. I have some family matters to take care of." Emily nodded and turned to leave.

She nodded to Lucas, "We're done." He nodded as well and bade their hosts a good bye as they drove off. Just a moment later, they heard a pop and a loud feminine wailing. Lucas reached over and held her hand. "I'm sorry."

She nodded sadly, "We achieved what we came for."

He looked at her for a moment before he turned his attention back to the road, "That is all you can say?"

"Lucas…" the phone rang and she answered.

It was Harry Pearce.

"Agent Prentiss, I hope you and Lucas are on your way out of Syria. Your father had called off the NSC meeting and he wants to meet with our Prime Minister and your President, the sale of the MiGs jets were not suppose to be divulged until after the NSC meeting was over but as stands, this has caused an international crisis. Well done. I'll see you back in London." He disconnected the line before he let her answered.

"Well, that was your boss," Emily said slowly. "He congratulated us on a job well done and…"

"Hang on, Harry said that, well done?" Lucas asked her.

She nodded, "Yes he did. Why?"

"Harry had never complimented any of his agents on the success of their assignments."

"Really? Well, he did."

"I wished we'd recorded it. That would never be repeated again." He shook his head. "I'm telling you, he likes you and he doesn't like many people."

"He does not like me. You're just jealous. Besides, he's got a crush on Ruth."

"Ruth, plain Ruth?"

"Yes, Ruth, and she is not plain. She is quite smart, smarter than you for that matter."

"I think you've been in the desert heat too long, it baked your brains." He teased her.

"I don't think so, Lucky Charms. Oh crap… I gotta call my Daddy." She picked up the phone and began to dial the encoded number.

"Sam!" Emily greeted him.

"Oh hey, Snow White, so have you cleared the palace?"

"Not quite yet but soon. How's everything?"

"If you mean the King and the Queen? Well, they are doing very well, getting along nicely too."

Emily frowned as she stared at the phone and put it back in her ear, "Am I hearing you right? You are talking about THE Queen?"

"Oh yeah, your mommy. She helped Frankie cooked supper."

"No kidding?" Emily marvelled.

"Yeah, it was really good. Beef Stroganoff."

"Oh my god, I can't believe it, my mother?"

She could hear in the background Bob laughing, _Why don't you tell her the truth, Sam_?

"What truth?" Emily asked him.

Sam started laughing, "Okay, it was TV dinner platters but she didn't burn _it._ So she helped."

"I knew she couldn't cook. Anyways, can I talk to my father?" she asked him.

"Sure, he's kind of quiet after the previous call, everything okay?"

"Yeah."

"I'll go get him, later Snow."

"Emily?" She turned to Lucas. "Everything okay?"

She nodded, "I hope so. Just gotta to talk to him."

"Snow White?" She heard her father on the line.

"It's me Daddy. We left Raad. Daddy what's going on?"

"Poppet, I wish I knew. Someone I thought was long dead is now very much alive. I am in shock, and not only that; to find out his son, his own son had turned traitor to the very cause he had always believed in and betrayed his father. Tell me Emily how does he look?"

"He…he…looked fine, Daddy, what is stuff about Russia sleeping with Syria?" Emily asked him.

"That is news to me as well, Poppet. I need to get back to D.C. ASAP to confer with the President. This is not good, not good at all for us. And the United Nations. It's a mess. Emily, I wish you'd join me in the committee, you'll be most excellent in this."

Emily smiled, "You know me, Daddy, I hate politics, hated it all my life. I like what I'm doing. I get to meet the cute guys." She glanced over to Lucas who grinned in return.

"I see. Is your Lucas well?"

"He is," she replied. "He sends his regards. We'll talk more when I get there. Bye Daddy."

"Bye Poppet...well done, by the way, both of you."

She disconnected the secure line.

"That was kind of you to spare your father." Lucas said.

She nodded.

Once they arrived at their hotel, it didn't take them long to pack their luggage and make flight arrangements back to London.

Lucas received a call from Harry informing him of his old Russian prison guard, Oleg Dershavin who was now missing, and believed to be on his way to London.

Lucas did not tell Emily what Harry said but he did worry about the information as Gerry drove them to the airport in Damascus.

"Are you sure you don't have time to enjoy the nightlife of Damascus?" Gerry offered, his leering smile was back.

"Sorry Gerry," Emily shook her head, glad to be free of the head dress, and the abayah. "We still have much to do when we get back to London."

"Bah! Dreary London," Gerry scorned. "It is always raining, always cloudy, so gloomy. It sucks your happiness out of you! I had to get out of there. Now, I am so happy to get this assignment. Beautiful women all over here, although none as beautiful as you, Emily!" He grinned at her appreciatively.

"Thank you for your kind compliments Gerry." Emily said as they arrived at the airport. "Take care." She gave him a final hug which he returned with a rather tight one, and more as she felt his hand on her...

Suddenly he grunted hard and fell to his knees clutching his private area as he stared at her, "You…you…!"

"This is what you get when you don't respect women. Remember that, Gerry. It was nice knowing you." She patted his bent head as she picked up her bag and walked into the building.

Lucas grinned and patted his shoulder, "I tried to warn you, my friend but…well, it was nice working with you, Gerry." He nodded at him as he followed Emily into the waiting line to be checked in for their flight.

"You don't think I hurt him too badly, do you?" Emily asked as she saw Gerry walked slowly and funnily back to his car, shaking his head.

"Nah but I do think you've made quite an impression with him though, he'll never forget about you."

She laughed as she handed her credentials to the clerk.

Almost an hour later as their plane took off, Lucas leaned over to her, "Ready to go home?"

She nodded, "Yes. Very much so," she looked out the darkened sky outside and thought; her father certainly had his hands full when he arrived at DC.

Then her cell phone buzzed, she had a text message; it was from Garcia,

_Em, call when you get a chance! It's Hotch, he's having problems with Jack. Growing Pains._

Poor Hotch, being a single parent was not easy, especially given their full time job. Well, with the help of Beth, he should have it a little easier. Yet, for Garcia to text her, she found it a little uneasy; what the heck was going on there?

She frowned, she had told Garcia that she and Hotch were done. And in fact, it had been a while since she had thought about him!

Thanks to Lucas of course! Being with him had helped take her mind off him. Lucas had been a great friend...well, maybe more. They had not really talked about that aspect of the relationship as they'd only known each other for a few weeks. It was still too soon to tell. Then again, it felt as if, she had known him forever! He was almost perfect for her. He was sweet, charming, caring, passionate, and so many other wonderful qualities...oh, and so much fun to be with, and his sense of humor, just like hers. Perfectly in sync. Wow...too good to be true...

Lucas was checking his cell phone, and he saw that he had a few missed calls; his heart skipped a few beats when he saw it was from Elizabeta! What would she want from him?

He frowned as he stared at the screen and then hesitantly pressed _delete_ and cleared his messages. _No… she left him_.

He clenched his phone tightly; first Oleg, now Elizabeta. Was it a coincidence that they made a reappearance in his life and the connection with the arms deal between Syria and Russia?

He did not believe in coincidences.

He glanced over to where Emily sitting next to him; she was what anchored him here. He couldn't go back to Russia, back to that life of torture!

What that bastard Oleg had done to him, he couldn't.

And as for Elizabeta, he had loved her once…what of Emily? Did she not matter in his life at all?

After all they had been through the last few weeks, he had felt so connected with her! She brought such a breath of life to him, like a ray of sunshine brightening his darkness, lifting his darkest hours from its prison. Not the one in Russia but the one in his mind. Yes, his mind had been in the dark for a long time and since meeting Emily his mind had brightened once more.

"Hey?" He turned to her. "Are you all right?" she asked.

He nodded, "Yeah, just tired. Long day you know."

She nodded, "Yeah."

"Where do you want me to drop you off when we land?" He asked her as he noticed the plane was preparing its descent.

"Back to my apartment, I left my Daddy's car there and I'll be driving it back to the safe house."

He nodded, "Just stay safe, okay?" He turned to look at her intently.

Emily nodded and smiled, she couldn't help but feel as if something was wrong but she wasn't sure if it was just exhaustion or stress from the mission or all the travelling they had done in the last few days.

Later, when they were at her apartment, he held her tightly to him, "Emily, I want you to know you are the best thing to ever happen to me."

Emily chuckled, "Hey, you're kind of frightening me, you sound as if you're leaving me."

He smiled, "No, I'm not. Not unless you tell me to, then I'll leave."

"Well, I do have to leave to get to my parents but you can stay here if you want to."

He shook his head, "I'm heading back to my place but I'll call you tomorrow night for dinner?"

She nodded, "I'd like that, just you and me. A date."

"Hmm…a date, yes. Let's hope Harry'll be nice to me and let me off early."

"I can call him if you want to?" She teased him.

"Oh sure, let's. You're his favorite now."

"I'm telling you, he likes Ruth, very much."

"In the biblical sense?" He still couldn't fathom it.

"Oh yes." She nodded. "Very Adam and Eve."

"I just can't …" He shook his head.

She grinned, "Trust me, I'm the profiler, remember? And I'm a woman, I know."

"Oh, you're definitely a woman!" He leaned to kiss her hard.

Later, Emily drove to the safe house to meet with her parents, she was smiling as she recalled the long kiss that led to her leaving her apartment much later than expected.

….

End of Chapter 16


	17. Chapter 17

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 17

.

Before Emily arrived at the safe house she had to take care of a few missed calls from when she was out of the country in Syria. She was glad to return them as she approached the outskirts of London, smiling, she went into her godfather's old summer house.

Cell phone in hand, the door was opened for her.

"Hey Bob, missed me?" She greeted Bob who was waiting for her smiling.

"Oh yeah, as if we have not seen you in years, eons, centuries, decades, scores…"

"Okay, okay, don't have to be so sarcastic! I was only gone for about three days." She grinned as she stepped into the foyer. "Where's everyone?"

"Your father's in the study, your mother is in her room packing. The team is in the living room waiting for you."

She debated on either her father or her team and decided on her team; she knew they were eager to get back to their home and based on a few anxious phone calls she had received earlier on her way here, she figured she'd tackle her team first.

"Lead the way." She indicated towards her team. He walked to the room and she followed.

The living room was huge, with three big couches and arm chairs in the corner for private reading, there were walls lined with book shelves full of books for readers of every genre; history, classic, romance, and even a shelf full of cooking how-to.

As she entered, she saw that her team was already packed and ready to leave. They greeted her warmly.

"Hey boss!"

"How's the trip?"

"Missed us?"

She smiled at them as she took a seat on the big couch next to Fanta.

"Mission accomplished guys, great job. You guys take tomorrow off." There was a big whoop of cheers all around the room as the guys were grinning happily, glad to have the day off and spent it with their family.

Emily held her hand up and they quieted.

"Got some messages for you. First off, Fanta, your mom is worried sick about you. I assured her you're fine. I just spoke to her on the way here." Fanta nodded. "But I suggest you give her a call before she launches a search and rescue party for you." The group laughed and Fanta blushed deeply, sinking into his seat.

"Next, Frankie your parents and in-laws are in town."

Frankie groaned loudly as he shook his head. "I'm dead, Hey Emily, any chance I can stay here all by myself?"

She grinned at him, "No, sorry. Sarah needs you right now. Man up. You're about to be a father. You're my martial arts expert and can take down bad guys without problem, what's the big deal about your parents and in-laws?"

Frankie nodded, "I'm sorry Emily but if you met my parents and in-laws, you'd know. They're a nightmare. Absolutely the wicked witches in Macbeth, minus one of them, thank goodness."

Emily arched her brow.

"I've met his mum, Emily," Bob nodded. "He is right, she is impossible. She told me I should be ashamed of myself for marking my arms!"

"Marking?" Emily asked.

He showed her a tattoo of a criss-cross dagger on his right forearm.

Emily laughed and thought of Lucas' multiple tattoos on his body; what would Frankie's mom think if she saw them!

"Okay, just remember, she brought you into this world and look what you've turned out to be, a fine soldier, and now an INTERPOL agent. I am proud of you, and the rest you as well." She looked at her team, "In just one month, we've accomplished quite a few more missions than other teams in the agency have done in months. I'm proud of you guys and thanks for sticking with me."

They smiled. "Emily," Sam spoke up, "I speak for the team here and we think you're pretty cool, despite the fact that you're an American." They chuckled. "You told me when we first formed this team," he continued. "That you'd maintain the integrity of the group and you'd listen to our needs. And you've not failed us at all. We have not had a finer team leader, it's us that feel lucky to have you." They all nodded.

Emily felt teary, "Aw guys that's the nicest thing anyone can say." She wiped her eyes.

It was a moment before she was able to compose herself and began again.

"Okay..."She turned to Bob, "Stella just lost her tooth, so Emma says you're playing tooth fairy tonight while she is on night shift at the hospital." Stella was Bob's youngest step daughter, Emma being his second wife whom he adored very much and worked as a nurse in a local hospital.

Bob looked about him, "Er, tooth fairy?" The marksman was at a loss.

"The kid put the lost tooth under the pillow and when she goes to bed, you go to her room..."Sam tried to explain.

"Sneak…you sneak _stealthily_," Emily stressed, "into her room and without waking her, you reach for her tooth under her pillow and replaced it with money."

"Money? How much?" Bob asked

"I don't know, it's been a long time since the tooth fairy visited me." Emily shrugged. "Fanta, what's the going rate?"

Fanta looked up, "Why are you asking me?"

"I thought you're still losing your baby teeth?" She grinned at him. "Come on, you can be honest with your Auntie Emily."

Fanta blushed again, "My mom gave my ten pounds."

"Ten pounds!" Bob exclaimed. "In my days, all I get was a pence!"

"Back in my day, all I got was a new tooth brush and a tube of toothpaste." Frankie said, laughingly.

"Wow, who were your parents? Dentists?" Sam teased him.

"As a matter of fact, they are…that's how they met and fell in love and had me." He grinned, showing his pearly whites.

The guys laughed more at him.

"Okay, guys…I'm done with debriefing. Any questions?"

They shook their heads.

They all stood, "Then gentlemen…and kid," she glanced at Fanta, "Go home, I'll see you guys day after tomorrow. Great job."

They each patted Emily's shoulder as they filed out of the room, and getting their gear and bags.

Emily waved them good bye before closing the door on them and went to the den where her dad was.

"Hey Daddy, any of that stuff left to share?" She indicated the scotch he was drinking at the desk.

James Prentiss looked up and saw his daughter standing by the door and smiled, "Of course, come on in."

She moved into the room and sat down in front of the desk as her father took a tumbler from a cabinet and sitting back down, poured her a finger's full of scotch and slid over to her.

"Welcome back, Poppet." He said as he raised his tumbler.

"Thank you, Daddy." She lifted hers and drank it, all of it in one shot.

Her father raised a brow at her, "Rough night?" He slid the bottle to her and she poured more.

"No, just celebrating. It's a good job." She said.

James nodded. "Yes it is. Well done."

She nodded. "What's happening now?"

James shook his head, "I'm not sure yet, I'll know when we get out of here."

"Heading back to DC?" She asked, he nodded.

"Poppet, you and North? How is everything?"

She looked at him and shrugged, "It's going well."

"You don't know?"

She grinned, "We are going slow. I mean …I…I don't know…Daddy." She looked sadly.

James leaned in, looking concerned, "Did he hurt you?"

She snapped her head up and looked at him, "Um, no! Gosh, no Daddy. He has been very nice and all. I like him very much but we are from two very different agencies and we can't talk much about our work and we don't see a lot of each other outside of work. I mean I'm not complaining. But I…just don' know…"

"Hey, Poppet," James said, "You're here to do your job. I know you should have a life but you know this damn career you picked does not allow for friends outside of work."

Emily laughed, "Funny, that's what Lucas said too."

"See, he knows this job sucks." He grinned. "I like that young man. He is smart and knows his work damn well."

"Daddy, I've only known him for a few weeks, it's still too soon to tell."

"Nonsense, Emily. I'd known your mother for two weeks and I knew she's the one for me and we've been married for more than thirty years."

"I thought you and mother don't…" Emily frowned.

"Don't get along? Poppet, we may have our rough patches, all married couples do but that didn't mean it was the end of it. We still love each other very much. Yes, we don't show it but we did not need to show it to prove to the world or to you. That's what makes us stronger." He said.

She bent her head down, "I'm sorry Daddy, I thought you and mother didn't get along all these years. I was wrong all this time."

He stood up and came around to her side of the desk, "It's okay, just think about how you treat your mother in the future."

She nodded.

"Come on, let's find out if she's packed and ready. The sooner I get back to London, the better I can get in communication with the Council and the U.S."

"Is mother coming with you?"

"No, she is assigned to Malta and eager to leave as soon as you give clearance."

She nodded, "Let's get out of here then."

Two hours later, after seeing her parents off to the U.S. Embassy in London, Emily finally made it back home to her apartment.

Dropping her bag, she crawled to her bed and slept until the late the next morning.

…..

It was early afternoon before Emily dragged herself out of bed and headed to the kitchen to make herself a pot of coffee.

As she waited for the coffee to brew, she checked her cell phone for messages and saw she had a few missed calls. One from Dave Rossi, one from her secretary and two from Garcia.

Checking the time zone difference, she dialed the number to Rossi; he should be at the office by now.

"Emily! Cara!" He greeted her.

"Hey Dave. How's it going?"

"Cara…how are you doing?" He asked her.

Emily noticed a slight pause before his query.

"I'm fine, busy but fine. Dave, what's going on?"

"Em, I'm not sure where to start…but…"

"David Rossi, will you just spit it out? It's not like you to behave like a woman."

She heard him chuckle, "Okay, I'll just say it and don't say I didn't warn you. Hotch is engaged."

There was a pause.

"Hello?" Dave spoke. "Cara? You there?"

"Yeah, I'm here…engaged? Hotch? To whom?"

"Are you listening to me? Who else do you think? Beth!" He exclaimed.

Emily nodded calmly, "Oh yeah…that's great…I'm glad for him."She sounded deflated.

There was a growl, "Emily! It is not, it's all wrong."

"But Dave, you're the one that pushed them together. Remember all those group dinners?" She reminded him.

"You had to remind me. But that was before I know the real Beth Clemmons."

"The real Beth? What do you mean?" Emily was feeling very uneasy for Hotch.

"She is not what she seems to be. I don't think she is stable and Aaron can't see it."

"Have you talked to him?"

"I tried, got my head snapped off, told me to mind my own business." He said; she could tell he was frustrated. "Look, I can't talk much now. We have a case to go to, Michigan. And get this…Hotch is now the new interim Section Chief. Strauss is taking some time off…she's in relapse for her alcohol. We'll talk later." He ended the call.

Emily breathed deeply; Hotch engaged? To Beth?

Right now, she needed…a cup of coffee.

Pouring a cup of joe and drinking the hot brew black, Emily breathed out as she let the much need caffeine absorb in her bloodstream.

Five minutes later, she was talking to Garcia.

"EMILY! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" Emily was smart enough to put the phone on speaker mode and spared her eardrums. Six years with Penelope Garcia, drama queen extraordinaire had taught her caution and to prepare for the extreme!

"Pen, I do have a job. I was out of town for a couple of days. So…what's going on?" She did not want to steal her friend's thunder and let Garcia have her moment.

"OH MY GOD! Emily! Prepare for the worse, prepare to mourn. This has got to be THE worst day of our lives, especially yours, my lovely dark brunette."

Emily couldn't help but chuckle at her best friend's flair for dramatic. "Spill it, PG."

"Wait, I don't think you're ready for this tragic news. First off, do you have a box of Kleenex. One or two will not be enough, you'll need a full box. Next, you'll have to call off work because you're in no shape to work after this news…"

"Pen! Enough! If you're referring to the news of Hotch being engaged, I know."

There was a pause.

"Hello?" Emily called out. "Pen? You there?"

"You knew? How is it you knew already? The news was just out. Damn! I really hate profilers, have I told you that?"

Emily laughed, "Everyday of my life but yet, you still hung out with us because you have a strange obsession with us profilers."

"Be serious, Emily Prentiss! This is an extreme crisis. This is all wrong…very wrong."

"PG…I can't do anything. Hotch is a grown man. If he is in love with her, and feels she is the…"

"That's just it! It's not. He is not in love with her."

"How do you know?" Emily asked as she stared at her cell phone.

"You're joking, right? I know! JJ knows! Even Reid knows and he's…well, he's Reid. Emily, there's something not right with her, we all felt it, even Blake saw it too."

"And what can I do? I mean, I'm right here and you guys are over there."

"I know. But there's got to be a way. Hotch cannot marry her. It's so wrong, think of poor Jack. He's going to have her for an step mother. "

"I thought he liked her."

"Are you kidding me? Jack loathes her!"

Emily felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach for Jack; she had always liked the kid.

Garcia continued, "Hotch has been having problems with Jack because of Beth. Didn't you get my texts?"

"Yeah but I didn't get the meaning…"

"Jack has been staying at Jessica's." Jessica was Jack's aunt; Haley's sister.

"I thought Beth was volunteering at Jack's school?" Emily wondered.

"Oh she did, until two days ago when the school principal kind of banned her. Beth began to complain about how the school was not doing a good job at their art curriculum and she wanted more classes added and went to the school board behind Hotch's back."

"Ouch." Emily winced.

"I know. The gall of her, right? And she's not even married to him! She tried to tell them that she was the girlfriend of the Unit Chief of the BAU of the FBI."

"She used that? At the school? Wow, she has balls." Emily shook her head.

Garcia snorted, "More balls than Haley would ever have done if she were alive."

"Haley would not do that, she was classier." Emily remembered Hotch's dead ex-wife.

"Em, you know we would never call you unless we were…"

"Desperate?" Emily pointed.

"YES!"

"All right, PG. I'll call him and talk to him." She closed her eyes as she said.

"Oh!" Garcia sounded relieved. "Yes, please. Tell him he's making the biggest mistake of his life."

"I'll call you later." She ended the call quickly and saw that her coffee had gone cold.

Getting her another fresh one, she dialed Hotch's number.

"Hotchner," Emily heard his usual crisp greeting. She felt her heart skipped a few beats; surprised that his voice could still affect her still.

"Hey, it's me."

There was a pause.

"Hello?" Emily frowned; did he hang up? "Hello…"

"I'm here, Emily."

"I heard congratulations are in order." She said.

"Thank you." He replied.

"You don't sound too thrilled, Hotch."

She heard him sigh, "You noticed?"

She chuckled, "As if you're sitting next to me, Hotch."

"Aaron."

"Huh?"

"Call me Aaron, after all we're equals. You're not my…subordinate anymore."

She smiled, "It's going to be a hard habit to break, H…Aaron."

"That's better. I like to hear you say that more often."

Emily felt a funny sensation in the pit of her stomach, "Aaron, what are we doing? You're engaged…and I'm…"

"Don't!" He rasped suddenly, almost scaring her. "If you said you're in love with that…Brit, I won't believe you."

"H...Aaron?" Emily frowned, "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay, Emily. It's just hearing your voice…I missed …you very much. I shouldn't have let you go."

She heard the torment in his voice and felt the pain in her heart for him.

"I…can't, Aaron. I have a career here now."

"I didn't' realized what an idiot I was, Dave saw it," He laughed. "I am such a fool."

"What about Beth?"

"What? Beth?"

"Yes, your fiancée?" She reminded him.

"I…I'm not in love with her."

"Kind of late to realize that, don't' you think?"

"I know but I can handle her."

"Can you, really?"

"What do you mean by that?" He asked her.

"Hotch, the last time I talked to her, she seemed to have things controlled her way and you're not aware of what she was doing, and what she was capable of."

"I don't know what to do."

"Talk to her, tell her directly and truthfully. But you have to be honest with yourself first."

"Thanks, I will."

She smiled, "I'll talk to you later?"

"Yes. When I get home. Jack is at Jessica's. He's…"

"Yeah, I heard you're having a tiny problem with my little boy friend."

He chuckled. "We'll get that fix up."

"Take care H…Aaron." She said softly.

"You too, and Emily…I love you."

Emily widened her eyes, stunned but the line was dead as he had ended the call.

.

…

End of Chapter 17


	18. Chapter 18

Changing the rating to T for Language….

Thank you Magpie of Silver for your Beta! Your Silvery fingers came through!

.

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 18

.

Throughout the day as she moved about her apartment, Hotch's words kept reverberating in her mind; _And Emily_…_I love you._

As she put a load of wash in the washer, she saw Lucas' shirt among her pile, Emily picked it up and held it to her nose and breathed deeply; yeah, Lucas…

Aaron…

Lucas…

_I'm so fucked._

Sergio came over to inspect her basket of laundry before jumping in and making himself comfortable, he lay down and began preening.

Emily arched her brow at him, "Why can my life be simple like yours, handsome?"

He ignored his owner and kept cleaning.

"Yeah, I would be too." Emily muttered as she put Lucas' shirt into the wash and closed the lid and turned the knob to start.

Picking up the basket, she walked back into the kitchen and saw her phone buzzing.

"Prentiss,"

Silence.

"Hello?" She said.

Nothing.

Emily looked at the screen and saw that there was no caller ID on her screen so with a shrug, she pressed _End_ on her phone and place it down on the counter and went about her chores.

In her bedroom, she found her cat lying in his usual spot; by her pillow. She looked over to the other pillow, the one Lucas had lain on and she picked up and smelled it. His distinctive scent again; he used very minimal cologne but his male musk was enough to leave its trace, she smiled as she recalled with deep blushes all those times they had spent in here and the night before they left for Damascus, he had used that red scarf…she heard her phone buzzed again in the kitchen.

It was the unknown caller again.

Emily frowned; what the hell?

…

Across London, Lucas was sitting in his sparse living room couch overlooking the view of downtown London but he was not enjoying the view currently. Instead, he was looking at his ex-wife Elizabeta Starkova

She was standing against the backdrop of the balcony overlooking the apartment.

"I see you kept up with your Idol." She was looking into the living room, it was decorated with paintings by his favorite artist William Blake.

"What do you want, Elizabeta?" Lucas said, he was tense, he had woken up finding her in his apartment.

She smiled as she moved inside the room and sat next to him, "I missed you, Lucenchk."

Lucas jumped out of his seat and stood away from her, "Do not call me by that name anymore! You do not have that right!" He snarled.

Elizabeta looked down before she stood up and walked to him, "You are right, Lucas. I am sorry. I shouldn't have called you with such an affectionate name._She_ should have the right now."

Lucas whipped his head to her, "What do you mean?"

"Emily Prentiss, the INTERPOL agent."

Lucas' heart dropped, "What have you done to her?"

She smiled, "Nothing …yet. She is safe in her house for now."

"Elizabeta, I warn you now, if something should happen to her…" he clenched his fists tightly, controlling himself.

"Lucas," she laughed coldly. "I assure you, she is safe. You can call her now if you want. She is fine. But there is someone who wants to talk to you…an old friend of yours, I'm sure you remember him."

Lucas was looked at her darkly but didn't say anything.

"Oleg wants to have a word with you. He was most certainly not happy you interrupted his sales talks with the Syrians. His contact point is dead. And he wants you to act on his behalf."

Lucas shook his head, "It's not going to happen."

"Oh, it is. Oleg just wants to talk, that is all. Hear him out. He will make you very rich." Elizabeta pointed out. "You can even get out of this stupid poor man job and be a millionaire and live a life of luxury for the rest of your life. Think about it, Oleg will contact you in two days."

And she walked out.

Lucas stayed where he was for a long time.

…

"Hotchner."

"Aaron, it's Beth, hi...how's work?"

"Beth! It's good...is everything okay?" Hotch sighed slightly.

"Of course, I'm having a great day at work so far, and that's the reason why I'm calling. My boss wants me to go to…you'll never guess where!" She sounded excited as she continued. "To London! Specifically the Natural History Museum! Aaron, I'm to be an honored guest there."

"Beth, I'm glad for you." Hotch said excitedly for her. "When is this event?"

"Well, that's the thing, it's a last minute arrangement and they need me to confirm it as soon as possible…and I really want to go and invite Jack to this because there is a great children's exhibit there and I thought it would be so much fun for him…"

"Beth…slow down…when is this happening?" Hotch couldn't help but chuckle.

"It's in two days, Aaron…oh please say you can go? I even have my passport ready and all and I can get us all the plane tickets."

"Beth…the tickets aren't the issue and neither are the passports. Jack has one too. He went to Australia with his grandparents and Jessica last summer."

"Wow, he didn't tell me that. I'm quite jealous of him."

"Beth, can we talk about this when I get home?"

"Oh yes! But seriously, think about it, London! Oh, isn't your old colleague, Emily Prentiss working there? We should invite her too and if she has a boyfriend, we can even make a date or something. It should be fun. I'll talk to you, Aaron. I love you honey."

"I…love you Beth." He ended the call.

Hotch stood up from his desk and walked to the window and looked out.

What the hell was he to do? He had the chance to go to London with Beth and see Emily.

Emily…how he missed her.

He remembered the last time he last saw her and kissed her; how soft her lips were.

Granted she didn't respond but he couldn't blame her after all the wrong he had done to her. He was definitely being unfair to Emily.

_You used her and you're using her, and Beth!_

I know.

_You know. What the hell do you mean by that? You know?_

I love her.

_You love her? Which one?_

Emily…Beth.

_Oh no Aaron, you can't…only one. You can only love one woman._

Hotch shook his head, I can't decide….they both have qualities I seek in a wife and mother of my child and future children.

_Oh my god, will you listen to your sanctimonious self…I seek in a wife and mother…what are you? The king? Of what? You are full of shit, Aaron Hotchner!_

Shut up.

_What? Can't handle it? Aaron, you can't have both of them. You're not being fair to either of them._

I realize that.

_No you don't, or you'd know who mattered to you._

They mattered to me…Emily…Beth…

He squeezed his eyes shut tightly. Just go away and leave me alone.

Silence.

….

Later that evening, Emily met Lucas at a local pub for dinner.

"This is romantic," She grinned. She was looking about the joint, it was full of people.

"Is it okay? I heard the food here is great."

She nodded, "I was just kidding, it's fine."

In truth, neither wanted to be in a public place by themselves, they knew that they were being watched and in such a crowded area, private conversations were hard to pick up and overhear.

"Had a good day today?" He asked her.

She nodded, "Just a lazy day, Serge sends his love."

Lucas grinned, "How's the old boy?"

She shrugged, "He misses you."

He reached over to her and held her hand, "I missed you too."

"As did I. Shall we order?"

He laughed, "I should have known, always food first. What'll you have?"

They ordered their dinner as the waitress stood near them.

For the rest of the evening, they did not talk about much other than mundane things.

"I think we should buy a house by a beach and have those kids we talked about."

"Oh yeah?" She frowned slightly. "A house by the beach, any place in particular?"

He shrugged, "You pick…just no onions, can't stand the stench of onions." He pointed out.

Emily arched her brows, "Sunshine, bikini, the beach, the hut, we could live in a hammock and get drunk every day."

He held her closed to him, "Hmmm….carefree…I like the bikini, maybe if we have the island to ourselves, you won't need any bikini…no tan lines."

"Neither would you, Lucas."

He laughed and she began to laugh… they had left the pub and were now walking home, as they leaned against a building as he brought her close to him and soon he kissed her.

"Who is it?" She whispered in his ear.

"Oleg is here." He continued to kiss her jaw.

"Who is he," she nuzzled his throat.

"My jailer and torturer in Russia, something is going on." He moved to her neck and planted small kisses on her skin.

"I've been getting unknown phone calls all day. Untraceable." She closed her eyes and ran her hands on his back. He tensed.

"That must be Oleg. Be watchful. Elizabeta is back."

Emily tensed in his embraced, "What did she want? A reunion?"

He smiled in his kiss, "Something like that, we interrupted Syrian negotiations. Now they want me in on it. Offered lots of money too. How about it, babe?"

She laughed softly, "We can buy that island of ours."

He chuckled, "Yup, In the Keys? Bahamas?"

"South Seas…Tropical…I don't know maybe." She kissed him as she ran her hand in his hair.

"When?"

"Two days."

"So soon." She muttered.

He pulled back and looked at her, "Let's go back to your place, I missed Serge."

"Here I thought you want to see me and you're using me to see my cat. I'm jealous." She laughed as he pulled her along.

"Come on woman. I require attention."

"No, you can get Serge to give you all the attention, I have another date."

He turned to her, "Another date?" he looked slightly crushed.

She grinned, "It's girls' night."

"Girls' night?"

"Skype."

"Skype?"

"I think I just adopted a parrot." She patted his head. "You know, video chat online."

"Oh...with your BAU ladies. Hmm…maybe I should disrobe and walk about bare chest..." he suggested with a mischievous grin.

"Don't you dare, Lucas!" She shook her head, "They will be so distracted and…and so will I."

"That's the point, my dear."

"You are not allowed in my apartment, then."

"I have ways, Emily." He pulled her hand to him.

She shook her head, "Don't forget I can still beat you."

As they neared her apartment, he picked her up and carried her up the stairs, "I'm stronger than you." He laughed.

She laughed at him as she let him carry her to the landing. "Well that was nice. Are you going to carry me over the thresh hold too?" She grinned at him.

He leaned against the wall, "Just unlock the door, my future…"

Emily frowned, "My door is not locked…" She nudged at the door which was slightly ajar.

At once they whipped out their guns from their back pockets and Lucas stood in front of her, "Let me go in first."

"Lucas…"

He looked at her, "Stay here, Emily."

She nodded.

Lucas, his gun pointing out, moved cautiously into her apartment and saw a trip wire near his boot, he backed away slowly and softly closed the door.

"Call the bomb squad" he said.

Emily pulled out her cell phone as Lucas began to go around her neighbors and evacuate them out of their apartment.

"Where's Sergio?" Lucas asked when he came back.

Emily looked up and turned to her apartment, her heart dropped when she heard a meow coming from within.

.

…

End of Chapter 18


	19. Chapter 19

**Thank you to Guest Reviewer CountryGirl , you're not a pain in the you know where! and please speak your mind! After all that's what reviews are for! **

**Thanks especially to my Beta - Magpie of Silver - You are awesome! this would not have looked good without your magic touch! Thank you, Mags!**

**.**

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 19

.

Four hours later, the bomb squad found the bomb inside Emily's apartment. It was a slightly comical situation made so by Sergio's incessant meowing as he was not permitted to be reunited with his owner on the other side of the apartment.

Old Mrs. Gromette, elderly neighbor came by in an extreme nervous state, "My dear, what is going on?"

Emily who as sitting on the steps stood up as soon as she saw the old lady, "It's just a silly little prank someone played, no worries, Mrs. Gromette."

She nodded, "Well then, where is that little boy of mine?" She referred to Sergio.

"Oh, he's in the apartment…doing a little…er…time out."

"Time out? What ever for?"

"Um…oh, he got into my trash and made an utter mess."

"Oh dear, he is such a bad boy…well, I'm going back to my place... I'll see you later." She then shuffled back to her apartment.

Emily sighed.

Then she stood up as she saw Lucas came out of her apartment with a fire chief, "All clear. You should be able to go back in, Agent Prentiss." After shaking her hand, he left.

Lucas was holding Sergio and he handed him to Emily.

"Hey handsome…come here." She began patting him as he purred loudly.

"Oleg was definitely here." Lucas held out an item to her. Emily picked it up and saw a calling card, it was plain with an picture of the Kremlin capital building with its onion dome.

"Not very original." She said as she looked at him. She then crumpled the card in her hand.

He walked with her into her apartment and she let her cat down, Sergio walked away from them.

Emily did a walk about her apartment and saw that nothing was missing or added. He watched her as she came back and said, "Everything looks good."

"Do you want me to stay with you tonight?" He asked.

Emily turned to look at him, "No, I'm fine…not unless you want to. I'm fine, really Lucas. I'm not so easily scared."

"I see." He said subtly.

She nodded. "You forget I have a warrior cat for protection." She pointed at her cat who was now lying on the floor between them.

"Then I'll see you some time? Just watch out for them?"

She nodded again as he came over and kissed her deeply before letting go reluctantly and left her, before he reminded her to lock her doors.

Emily leaned against the main door after bolting the latches and thought for a while; what an evening!

She was almost blown up! A warning from people from Russia who were pissed about their interference with Syria and Russia failed arms dealings. Great, there would be retributions; these Russians were really pissed.

Straightening from the door, she went to her laptop and realized she had forgotten about her rendezvous with JJ and Garcia.

But she had something much more important; turning her equipment on, she also got on her cell phone and called her father. Time to play hard ball. Later, she would get in contact with Clyde, and tomorrow she'd meet with her team.

It was past midnight, but she was far from sleepy. Tonight's events had kicked up her adrenaline.

"Prentiss," Her father came on the line.

"Daddy, its Emily."

"Hey, Poppet…is everything okay?" her father picked up on the change in her voice.

"Not quite…I need some information." She quickly told her father what happened this evening.

"Oh, my god! Emily! I want to assign…"

"No, Daddy, I don't need bodyguards," she cut her father. "That's not why I called you about. I need intel. Russian prison intel."

"I…I will see what I do. Give me a day my dear but you know your mother…"

"No Daddy, I don't want to get mother involve in this. This is not her. This is actually your battlefield."

"Mine?" James was puzzled.

"Yes, we interrupted and stopped the Syrians' talks with Russians. You friend Raad's son was the point of contact and now he is dead. They want another POC, and they want Lucas to be their man."

"Oh no. Poppet…I…this is not supposed to be…"

"I know. Find out about this Oleg Darshavin, he used to work in the Russian prison for many years. And an Elizabeta Starkova."

"Who are they?"

"I'm not sure, Daddy but please find out. I'll get in touch in a day or so."

"Take care, Poppet."

She ended her call and began to work on her laptop for the rest of the night.

…

Early the next morning, Emily was at her INTERPOL office.

She was using a secure phone and talking to Clyde Easter in France.

"I see you're in back in a cultured country, welcome back boss."

"_You've been busy chéri! Needless to say Papa is thrilled with your mission accomplissement__."_

"Merci. Thanks but you know that it was a joint effort with MI-5."

"_Ah yes -5. How's your boyfriend…and don't deny it. Three days together and nothing happened, and I'm the new Pope."_

She laughed. "Clyde, you're anything but holy. The Vatican will busy bleaching their walls everyday if you're a pope. Ah!" she teased.

"_Okay! Okay! Have your damn fun just because you're on a secure phone."_ But he sounded serious next, "_just for your ears, your ears alone and between you and me. I haven't gotten laid in months, so I'm fucking horny, not to mention frustrated as hell."_

It took a moment for it to sink in as Emily suddenly laughed.

"_Oh come on, shut the hell up Em! It's not fucking funny! You're not a man, you don't know what damn hell I'm in. Piss on you!"_

"I'm sorry, Clyde, I'm not feeling sorry for you at all."

"_Great, just great. Anyways…let's get this shit over with. So I can find some hairy French chick."_

Still chuckling, Emily told Clyde the latest about the Syrian/Russian deal and what they wanted Lucas to do.

"_Hmm…that is out of our hands…-5 will be handling that. It's out of yours and mine jurisdiction_."

"But it's International, which means…"

"_I know…but North is involved which means -5 will take it. Sit back and get on with your work, Emily."_

"What about this bomb plant in my apartment?"

"_Well, that…is your warning to not interfere, darling."_

"You're wrong." She told him who planted the bomb.

"_Oh, I do hate making new friends, especially from the Bear family."_

Emily couldn't help but giggle.

"_Okay…listen…why don't you have a chat with Harry, and offer your assistance?"_ He suggested.

She smiled, "I'll do that... I'll just pop by over there later."

"_Yeah, sounds like your new hang out place, how's your boyfriend?"_

"Oh, he's great and he is very good…if you know what I mean." She grinned maliciously.

"_Oh no, you don't dear, you know the state I'm in…you're just teasing me, shut it Em."_

"Oh, no…you asked, Lucas is such a great guy, and so big…" She gushed lustily.

"_OH FUCK YOU, Emily Prentiss!"_

And he disconnected the secure line, leaving Emily laughing for a while.

She heard a beep in her cell phone and saw she had a text message; it was Sam;

_How about lunch, Snow? Meet you at the forest._

It was their new name for the gym as it was decorated all in green.

She grinned; she did need some work out, what with all the food she had eaten recently.

_Meet you at noon, doc_. she sent back her reply.

Before she left for the gym, she called -5 and spoke with the secretary leaving a message that she would like to meet with Harry Pearce at 3pm.

She then worked on her files until lunch. When her secretary left promptly at noon, Emily also stopped working and began making her way to the INTERPOL gym and changed in the women's locker room.

Emily walked out to the large room of the gym made for the INTERPOL team's work regiment; there a few mats for workouts and even a ring for sparring, weights for trainings and climbing ropes that reached all the way to the ceiling.

Sam had designed the layout of the gym and his team had found that they liked it and three times a week if they were not on assignments, they would out here working out, even Fanta found a program he liked to work and fit in with his fellow team members.

After doing a series of warm-ups and stretches Sam had taught her, she went up to Sam and he assigned her a partner, Frankie, and they went to the another mat and began sparring free-hand.

Using what was taught at the FBI academy classes, Emily began use her hand as her shield and block Frankie's attack moves. He'd tried to go for her neck and she'd duck and swiped at his knees. Taking him down and immediately rolled away from her as she jumped on him only that she landed on an empty mat. She looked up a little too late and saw his hand coming at her as it connected the side of her head.

"Oaf!" her wind knocked out of her and she turned completely and rolled all the way around and caught her breath, saw him coming again and ducked again, just in time as he tried to smacked at her again only missing her by inches but she saw his move as she turned and using her elbow swung at him and hit his solar plexus, knocking the breath out of him.

"Ow!" He landed on his side as he clutched his sternum catching his breath.

"You okay, Frankie?" Emily was also breathing hard as she was on her knees, sweat pouring down her forehead.

"Good one, Emily." Sam grinned as he stood next to her.

She nodded, still trying to get her breath back.

"May I?" A voice came from behind Emily.

She turned around and saw Lucas and Ros Myers.

Emily straightened and looked at them, "Hello? Anything I can help?"

Lucas grinned at her as he was eyeing at her, "Not at all, Harry wants us to make sure you get to -5 in one piece. You are a HVT."

She frowned, "Since when am I a High Value Target?"

"Since last night when someone planted that bomb in your apartment," Lucas pointed out.

"Wait." Sam came over, in fact her whole team came over, Emily rolled her eyes. "What bomb?"

Emily explained to them about the bomb in her apartment, her team became upset, "Emily, you should have told us." Sam glared at her.

"I'm sorry Sam. I didn't think it was that bad. And hey, I'm still here." She tried to make light of the situation.

"No boss, this is serious shit." Sam continued but Bob held him back.

"Enough Sam," Emily said, her smile was gone. "We handled it. Besides, I have a job for you, and the rest of the team."

He nodded, "Sorry, Emily. It's just that this is no joke. We can't lose you…" He stopped and turned away.

Emily looked at Bob who shook his head, "He gets emotional, it's his time of the month I think…"

Emily smiled as did the rest of the group. Sam turned back around composed, "Damn it Emily, You mean a lot to us. Just don't do it again…okay?"

Emily patted his shoulder, "I promise, from now on, to keep you informed all the time, okay?"

He nodded.

She turned to Lucas, "Now, I seem to owe you a beat down, don't I?"

Lucas grinned as he removed his shirt, revealing his short sleeved tee. "I'm ready."

"Wait, Lucas. I want to have a go with Agent Prentiss." They all turned to Ros who took off her shoes and stepped onto the mat.

"Please, call me Emily, we're going to be well acquainted with each other so…"Emily didn't get to finish her sentence when Ros made the first move by smacking her across her jaw.

"Be nice to my girlfriend, Ros." Lucas smiled.

Ros arched her blonde brow at him, "Your girlfriend, huh?"

The INTERPOL guys aw'ed Emily just as just as Emily punched her back easily across her cheek, a red mark instantly appearing.

"Oops." Emily grinned when she saw it.

Ros returned her grin, "Oops indeed." And twisting her body to her right, she high kicked and knocked Emily off the mat with right foot.

Blocking the pain on her lower back, Emily rolled away from Ros and got her knees and blocked another incoming blow from Ros; for the next few minutes, Emily could not get any attack moves on Ros as she fired one blow after another one. But soon, she saw Ros slowly down as the blonde agent was tiring. And Emily had not even begun yet.

After the last kick which was not a strong kick at all, Emily knew Ros was giving out and she began on the offense and laid it out on her. Ros was doing her best to dodge Emily's blows as the table turned. Finally, Emily who was also exhausted gave one more blow to Ros but she managed to dodge from her as both women were breathing hard and they nodded their heads and grinned and said, "Pax." And shook hands.

The guys groaned and wished there was a winner but they clapped for the women.

Emily told Ros that they have spare clothes in the ladies' gym locker she could shower and changed.

Lucas nodded to Emily and Ros that he'd wait for them.

When Emily and Ros emerged from the shower and changed, Ros stopped her.

"Emily, I just want to tell you something about Lucas."

Emily looked at her.

"Lucas used to be one of the best officers in the field -5 ever had. Since his stay in Russia he has not been the same…."

"Ros, would you be, if you'd been tortured daily?" Emily looked at her.

"That's not what I mean. He's still good but not as sharp as he used to be. I'm not insulting him, I trust him because he's my partner and at the same time, as his partner I know. You used to work with a partner in the FBI, you'd know if he's off, right?"

Emily nodded, "Yeah…right. What do you think it is?"

"I don't know. Did he tell you much of what he went through in prison?"

"No, not a lot. I'm not as close to him like you, Ros. And he doesn't like to talk about it."

Ros frowned.

"You're worried about his mental capability?"

Ros looked intently at Emily, "How did you know?"

She shrug, "That's the first sign profilers looked at, and also we looked at how survivors deal with surviving."

"Survivors deal with surviving…Lucas…"

"He survived and he's surviving, granted he's doing a great job at his work. What about what's up in his mind? What is he thinking? Is he suffering from PTSD?"

"PTSD?"

Emily nodded, "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; someone suffering from after effects of long term stress. Best examples are soldiers from war. There are studies that showed wide range of experience, particularly if it's extremely traumatic in a person and the symptoms vary and can sometimes be fatal to either the person suffering from it or directed at."

Ros nodded, "I don't think Lucas is suffering from this PTSD…"

Emily shook her head, "PTSD is not easily identifiable. It could lay dormant for a long time and then suddenly something traumatic might happened to that person and awaken the stresser point and trigger it."

"What else?"

"There is another one…Stockholm syndrome. The captive becomes sympathetic with his or her captor. A rare occurrence but usually it happened with opposite sexes. It happens when the victim falls in love with her captor who manipulates her mind for many years. Lucas' captor or tormentor was a male so it is quite impossible for him to develop Stockholm syndrome. If he did, it would be an extremely rare case."

"Can it be cured?"

Emily arched her brow, "I'm not sure, months of therapies, I think…or…if he's willing, only if his mind is willing, he could be hypnotized and be cleared of it."

Ros looked at Emily, "You sound as if you'd done it before, haven't you?"

Emily nodded, "A long time ago. Before I was with the BAU."

"Were you successful?"

She grinned, "I was lucky…Ben was taken a prisoner and spent five years in Iraq. They tried to brain-wash him into making him believe he was an Iraqi spy. His Iraqi handler did a good job on him, really screwed his brains up but he was young and we were successful in getting him back."

"How long did it take you to reverse it?"

"Too long, I spent over three days in complete isolation. I had to play Iraqi first then slowly convince him that I was Israeli and so was he…"

"Israeli? My god! They were extreme!"

Emily nodded, "Totally, Benjamin el Fayed became Muhammed bin Ahmed."

Ros raised her brows.

"But Ben is now back home in the U.S. married with three kids and is an English Professor of U. of South Carolina. No after affects so far."

They walked out of the locker room.

Ros asked Emily, "If Lucas ever needed this hypnotizing, will you help him?"

"Only if he's willing to help himself, Ros.

"That's all I'm asking. Thank you Emily." She smiled.

"Not a problem Ros."

"Ready?" Lucas nodded at them.

"One moment," Emily turned to Sam who was still working out. "Sam…I'm meeting over at -5. I'll call you with this assignment later. Get the team ready."

"Roger that, Snow White!" he grinned.

Emily shook her head as she waved to them and joined Ros and Lucas as they headed out of the INTERPOL building.

…

Beth was waiting for Hotch when he arrived home that evening, the dining table was set with the delicious smell of a home cooked meal and Jack, smiling and waiting for him as well.

"Daddy's home!" Jack shouted as he ran towards his father and wrapped himself into his legs.

"Hey buddy! How are you?" Hotch set his briefcase down and bent to hug his son tightly; he had not seen him in a few days.

"I missed you Daddy."

"I missed you buddy."Hotch closed his eyes for the moment as he let himself feel and become a dad again.

"Hey honey, save some of that hugs for me," he heard Beth near them.

Opening his eyes, he saw Jack smiling at him and they looked back at Beth who was waiting near the kitchen doorway with a warm smile and wearing a cook's apron that said 'KISS ME IF YOU'RE HUNGRY!'.

Hotch held Jack's hand and led him to Beth as he slid his other hand into her slim waist and kissed her lips. "Hi babe."

Beth kissed him back happily and then moved away and led them to the dining room, "Not yet…gotta first wash up before you two sit down and eat."

Hotch saw that Beth had baked a whole roasted chicken with a side of macaroni and cheese, Jack's favorite, and green beans, with a basket of fresh dinner rolls.

"Beth, this smells delicious! You have outdone yourself."

She beamed widely, "Thank you Aaron, now go wash up and let's eat!"

The Hotchner men exchanged smiles and pivoted as they hurried to the bathroom; Jack was laughing his boyish laughter as he tried to outrun his dad to the room and cheered because he'd won.

"Okay, Jack. Just this time. You beat your old man. Next time I'm not going to play Mr. Nice guy." Hotch laughingly warned his son.

"You're always Mr. Nice Guy, Daddy because you catch the bad guys all the time."

"That's right, your daddy has super powers." Hotch said.

"Better than Superman and Captain America!" Jack shouted.

"Captain America has nothing compared to your daddy." Hotch was laughing as they emerged from the bathroom.

"Did you bring your cape home Daddy?" Jack looked up at his dad.

Hotch nodded, "Oh yeah Buddy, it's in my briefcase. You know I can't wear it all the time, got to hide my true identity." He gave Beth a knowing grin. She shook her head smiling at father and son.

"Let's eat, son. Super heroes have to eat to keep up with their strength." Hotch looked serious.

"Okay daddy. I'm hungry too." Jack nodded.

They sat down at the dining room and Hotch served the meal.

Later when dishes where cleared and cleaned, they gathered in the living room where Jack took out his enormous collection of action figures and began enacting mini stories upon stories accompanied by effects and violent actions of fighting.

Hotch and Beth were sitting on the couch watching TV, or trying to watch a program when Jack's playing became too loud. Hotch noticed Beth tensing up but she hadn't said anything at all.

Glancing at the time, Hotch called to his son, "Hey Buddy, time to clean up and ready for your bath and bed."

Jack looked deflated, "Just five minutes daddy…Thor almost beat Hulk daddy."

Hotch almost nodded but Beth shook her head, "Jack, your daddy said to clean up, let's do it now. Come on." She said sternly.

Jack looked hurt as he dropped his toys and began throwing them back into their containers, his eyes were big and full of tears.

Hotch frowned and said quietly to Beth, "It was okay to give him five more minutes, Beth."

She shook her head, "No Aaron, you must be firm with him now or later on he'll really start rebelling." She looked at him directly.

Hotch thought for a moment and saw that Jack was through with his cleaning and had stomped to his room for his bath and knew that it was time to do it.

"Beth, I think we need to talk about this…about us."

She faltered a moment and brightened, "Aaron, you're spoiling everything!"

"Come again?"

She shook her head and laughed, "Oh my god! I was saving this up till later when Jack is done with his bath, before he goes to bed but I see I'm going to have to tell you this."

"Tell me what, Beth? If this is about the London trip…"

"No, well it is but this is even better and it was a surprise for you and Jack."

"Beth…you're not making any sense, what is it?"

She picked up his hand and held it to her stomach which was still flat but the implication was obvious.

Hotch straightened up, "You're pregnant." He paled.

Beth nodded happily, "WE are pregnant, Aaron, you're going to be a daddy …again."

.

….

End of Chapter 19


	20. Chapter 20

**Thank you guest reviewer TAYLOR for your sweet review!**

**And to my Beta! Awesome! As always! Thank you! **

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**ENJOY!**

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INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 20

.

Beth nodded happily, "WE are pregnant, Aaron, you're going to be a daddy …again."

To say Hotch was stunned was an understatement, "Beth, I thought you were on a contraceptive preventive method…"

Beth's smile faltered, "Aaron…birth control pill can fail, there is no fail-safe method…I …don't understand, you're not happy that I'm pregnant?" She began to tear up...

Hotch immediately gathered her to him, "No! No, Beth, I'm …happy! I'm shocked. Give me a moment to absorb this news. I mean I'm not…Beth, I'm happy for y...us" He hugged her tightly but not too tight, concerned for her well being.

"I'm sorry Aaron. I thought you'd be ecstatic to be a father again." She mumbled in his shirt.

He patted her back as he continued to hug her as he closed his eyes, "I am happy babe. We're going to be a family. You, me, Jack, the baby."

"A girl, this time?" Beth said.

Hotch nodded woodenly, "Yes, a girl, I'd like that...a little girl."

Unconsciously, an image came unbidden to him, a little girl that resembled Emily more than Beth as he smiled fondly while he continued to hug her….

…..

Sitting alone with Harry in his office, Emily was smiling, he was not.

Not that that surprised her much as Harry, she had come to know him rather quickly, he never smiled much at all.

She thought that he would make an excellent poker player, which was exactly the very question she had posed just to stir his dander.

"You came all the way from INTERPOL just to ask me that, Agent Prentiss?" Harry glared at her.

Trying her best to not laugh, she shook her head, "Not at all, Sir Harry." She said cheekily. "I talked to Clyde this morning and he suggested I approached you and seek your opinion."

"And what may I ask is this opinion?"

"Oh, come on, Harry. You know what I'm going to ask you." She stood up and leaned over him.

.

Lucas, Tariq, Ros and Ruth were in their cubicles supposedly working but they were watching Harry and Emily with avid interest in Harry's office.

"Oh my, Harry is literally staring at her girls!" Tariq's eyes were wide. Ruth was also as she saw how close Emily was leaning over to Harry and she was wearing a low cut shirt that showed quite a bit of cleavage and Emily had lots of cleavage!

Lucas was grinning, "All barrels blazing…" he muttered.

Ruth gave him a dark look.

.

Harry arched his brow, "If you're talking about that little bomb Oleg Darshavin put in your apartment last night, I'm well aware of it."

Emily straightened up as she suddenly was aware of the exposé she was showing and blushed. "I want to know about him and what he wants with me."

Harry shrugged, "He worked in a Russia prison for over 20 years."

"As?" She prompted him.

"He's a jailer, Agent Prentiss, What do you think jailers do? Sit around with their finger in their arse? You tell me?"

She turned to stare at him, "He tortured his prisoners," she shrugs. "Why can't you just say that?"

"What the bloody hell are you trying to get at?" He was turning slightly red.

"Why is he here? What is his interest?"

Harry stood up, "I don't bloody know! And I don't bloody care!"

.

"Are they having an argument?" Ruth looked concern. "Harry's turning a rather nasty shade of purple."

Tariq was grinning, "Nah, he looks pretty good in that shade. Quite becoming."

Ros nodded, "Look, it matches his tie."

"I don't like it," Ruth was shaking her head. "I think one of us should go in."

"Not me, I wouldn't want to get my head bitten off." Lucas shook his head, he was grinning as he watched them, specifically Emily who was walking about the room calmly.

.

"I don't need protection, Harry."

"Yes you do."

"I have capable agents that can do the job." She argued.

"Agent Prentiss,"

"Emily,"

"What?"

"Call me Emily," she smiled. "We're friends, aren't we?"

Harry glared at her, "I don't make friends, Agent Prentiss…Emily. You're the daughter of an important member of the National Security Council Member and the daughter of the highly valued Ambassador. If anything should happen to you, it would be on our head."

She shook head, "MI-5 does not do baby-sitting services. I appreciate it, Harry. But it's not necessarily; you will be well spent utilizing your officers in their true capacity."

Harry arched his brows, paused for a moment and began to laugh, truly laugh.

.

His officers were staring at him.

"Is that Harry laughing?" Tariq staring, his mouth opened.

"I think you're right, Tariq." Ruth marvelled.

"We should be taking a picture of this, it will never happen again." Ros said.

"I'll be…she did it again." Lucas was chuckling.

.

"That has got to be the worst load of manure I've ever heard of." Harry said as soon as he recovered from his bout of laughter.

"Well, it sounded pretty good, and it made you laugh." She grinned.

He nodded, this time he was smiling, "Yes you did, I'll give you that. All right, no protection, it will be on your head."

She nodded with satisfaction, "Now about Darshavin."

"You're not giving up on this?"

She shook her head, "He left his business card, who am I to ignore such invitation?"

"Be careful whom you're dealing with. Look at Lucas. He still has scars, not the ones you can see. Oleg had done a pretty good work on him."

They turned their gazes at Lucas.

.

"Uh oh, I think they're talking about us now." Ros commented.

Lucas frowned as he noticed they were looking at him directly.

"What are they talking about?" Ruth wanted to know.

"I don't know if I want to know." Tariq shook his head.

.

"I want files on Oleg Darshavin, Harry."

"I don't have anything on him."

"I don't believe you."

"Believe or not, I don't have it." He looked squarely in her eyes.

"Very well, Harry. Thanks for your help."

"Don't mention it, Agent Prentiss." She turned to look at him and nodded as she made to leave.

She was just about to open the door when he said, "Wait," he stood up and opened a drawer from his desk and withdrew a file and handed it her, "No one sees it, least of all him." He indicated Lucas.

Emily took the file from Harry and smiled, "Knew you had a soft spot for brunettes." She whispered. "Ruth is a lucky gal."

Harry looked stunned and then recovering, he yelled at her, "GET OUT OF HERE, Agent Prentiss!" as Emily left his office, grinning.

"Bloody witch…"Harry muttered, as he glared darkly and then smiled secretly after "…profilers…"

.

"Oh dear, now you've done it," Lucas grinned as he stood up when he saw and heard Harry yelling at Emily.

She shook her head, "He'll get over it." Ros had also stood up but Harry stopped her and informed them they no longer need to play body guards to Emily anymore. Ros nodded to Emily and turned back to her desk.

"Where to, Snow?" Lucas grinned at her.

Emily thought for a moment, "Lucas, just drop me off at the INTERPOL. I've still got a ton of work to do at my office."

"And dinner?" he asked her. "You always need to eat."

She grinned, "Of course. Then I have my girls' night out since it was slightly delayed last night."

He nodded, "Sounds good, Harry has some work for me to do as well. I'll see you tonight?"

She nodded.

…..

Alone in her office, Emily opened the file Harry gave her and she saw it was a file about a Russian named Arkady Kachimov. Kachimov, a high ranking FSB agent who was captured by British intelligence. MI-6 and FSB worked on a spy to spy exchange that freed Lucas to the UK and Kachimov back to Moscow. But it was known that the Kachimov, prior to his capture had visited the Russian prison and met with Oleg, and subsequently Lucas while incarcerated. The exchange was not a coincidence. It was an agreement between Russian and British Intelligence for both men. The Russians wanted Kachimov back so badly that they were willing to give up North. It was noted on the files that Oleg was the one who applied the tattoos on North's body through the years.

Emily closed the file when she was done put it in a safe.

Then before she left for home, she called Sam.

"Doc,"

"Snow! How's the jaw?"

She moved her mouth and smiled, "It's fine, no injury."

"Good, knew you were a toughie."

She smiled. "Ready for your surveillance job?"

"Spit it out."

"Gosh, you've been hanging out with them Yanks too long you're starting to sound like one."

"Your fault, Snow." He grinned.

"Okay…here's the deal, this is a hot surveillance, so you guys better be on your six. I mean it. These people are no Pansies."

"Will you stop stalling and spill it?" Sam laughed. "We're big boys, we stopped wearing training knickers a long time ago."

She groaned, "Training diapers…sounds better than knickers."

"Boss…"Sam warned her.

"Okay, okay…here's the deal…"

For the next several minutes she told him of what she wanted them to do and stressing to him of the dangers of the assignment.

"You're not kidding, Snow. Operation Teddy Bear is now going in effect." He named it.

"Oh I like it." Emily laughed, "Teddy Bear, yeah, you know that stuff bear was actually named after US President Theodore Roosevelt and um…okay, now is not the time for US history lessons."

"Right you are, Snow." She could hear his grin. "Target Alpha and target Bravo will be on track by Fanta, up and ready tonight. Although we still don't know much about Bravo yet."

"I'm getting the intel, hopefully today. Just get it started and roll out Sweet Baby when you're ready," she said.

"Oh, Sweet Baby is eager to roll out with the state of the art electronics and Dopey is salivating."

"I bet he is." She laughed. "You guys try not to have too much fun and I'll check on you from time to time, I might pop in if I get the chance."

"Ooh! I better warn the dwarves to be on their best behaviour."

"I'll talk to you later, Doc."

"Watch you don't eat that poisoned apple, Snow."

"I won't. Good luck."

"You too."

Leaving her office, she drove towards the US Embassy and showing her credentials at the gate, she drove in and parked in the parking lot and walked into the building.

Walking up to the office, she smiled when she saw her father conversing with an old friend of his.

She walked up behind them, "Still talking like a bag of air, Council member Prentiss?"

They turned their heads and her father's friend cried in surprise, "Well I'll be, if it isn't little Emily! All grown up!"

"Councilman Colson, how are you?" She greeted him.

The elderly man laughed as he gathered her in a bear hug, "Come here, and give your Godfather a hug, Councilman Colson, indeed. You silly little girl!" The man bussed both her cheeks.

He whispered into her ear, "I see you're still carrying that plastic toy gun in the back of your pants like you used to do when you're little, just you watch it and don't misfire it and shoot it into your arse!"

He patted her back where her gun was.

Emily laughed, "Godfather, still as sharp even though you're getting on in your old age!

He looked shock and then laughed, "Oi! You!" He wagged his finger at her. "Sassy little britches, you're not too old to get a whooping! Remember I still have my belt and I'll put it to good use!"

"Come on Poppet," James pulled his daughter with him. "He's been itching to do it for the longest time, don't encourage the old geezer!"

Councilman Colson laughed and waved at father and daughter as they hurried to his office, "Come to my office, Emily! I'll show you that whipping you're long overdue."

James shook his head as he closed the door and waved his daughter to sit.

"Emily, I want you to cut all ties with Lucas North. I want you to stop seeing him."

.

….

End of Chapter 20


	21. Chapter 21

**To Guest Reviewer - thank you for your cool review! yeah I agree with your review! but it's what makes this story more interesting!**

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INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 21

.

"Emily, I want you to cut all ties with Lucas North. I want you to stop seeing him." James Prentiss said to his daughter as she sat down in front of his desk.

"I beg your pardon?"She frowned at him, she wasn't sure if she had heard him correctly.

He handed her a file, "You can read it later, I'll just tell you now what it says about your so-call boyfriend Lucas North." He said it with anger.

"Did you know he was previously married to this Elizabeta Starkova?" Emily nodded. James arched his brow.

"Yes, I do but I don't know much about her except that they met while he was working undercover in Russia and married there. He was then captured and spent eight years in prison."

James was silent for a moment and then he spoke, "Elizabeta Starkova is the daughter of an old spy network KGB Arkady Kachimov."

Emily gasped at the sound of the name, "KGB…"

"You've heard of him?" James asked her.

"I just heard of him," she told him of the file Harry Pearce gave her.

James sat down next to her in stunned surprise. "Emily, this is bigger than you can imagine."

"What do you mean?"

"How much do you really know about North?"

She shrugged, "Not much, I mean we met only a few weeks ago…Daddy, what's going on?"

"He may be a double spy, Russian and British." James sneered.

Emily shook her head, "That's not true! He was tortured in a Russian prison for eight years, how could he be a working for the Russian?"

James hesitated, "That doesn't make any sense then," he sighed. "He is an enigma."

"No, he is just being used as a pawn there. Someone in -5 betrayed him and he believed it was Harry Pearce which I find it hard to believe."

"Oh?"

"Not many knew he went to Russia, Harry was the only one. There had to be more than him." Emily thought deeply.

James nodded and pointed, "North has intelligence Russia wanted very badly that they are coming back for him. Obviously, this Oleg Darshavin was not successful in obtaining what he was supposed to get out of him for the past eight years."

Emily leaned over to her father, "Daddy, Lucas is the target, not me."

He nodded at her.

She immediately pulled her phone out and called MI-5.

_Pearce._

"Harry, this is Emily."

_Oh, it's you, back for more mouthiness._

Harry, listen, I'm with my dad…the HVT is Lucas, Darshavin is coming for him. Whatever Lucas was captured for in Russia eight years ago, they haven't gotten it yet from him and they wanted it, Elizabeta, Lucas' ex-wife is Arkady Kachimov daughter. Their marriage was a ruse. Who knew he was going to Russia eight years ago, Harry?"

_I…and Connie James…but she is a trusted senior staff analyst._

"Harry, she may be your Russian mole. Lucas had his suspicion and you were his suspicion for the longest time." Emily informed him.

He was silent

_Emily, Lucas is not here…he never came back after he dropped you off._

Emily's heart dropped as she looked over to her father, "Harry, he could have gone to meet with Oleg."

_You may be right…Ruth says he's not answering his phone._

"Harry, trust him…"

_Agent Prentiss, how do you expect me to trust my officer who is not answering his phone call? He is my senior officer, for Pete's sake! And he's meeting with his bloody tormentor! And you're telling me to trust him?_

"Harry, what is it they wanted? What was so important they wanted out of him?" She asked him.

_I can't tell you, sorry Emily._

"Fine, keep your damn secrets." Emily said angrily and ended the call.

"I take it he was not too please with the information?" James said.

"No."

Her phone buzzed, she looked at it as it was a text message and it was from Harry;

_Meet me at Hyde's Park in one hour, before I regret it! Pearce._

Emily grinned.

"Who is it, Poppet?"

"It seems he has a change of heart, he wants to meet in an hour at the park."

James nodded and smiled, "Knew that tough ol' boy has a soft spot for you."

She looked at her father fondly, "That's what Lucas said."

James frowned, "Speaking of him...he seemed to be involved in a lot of trouble."

She stood up, "Yup, that's for being in this career, and sacrificing your life to your country! God save the Queen!" She said sarcastically.

"Get out of here, Poppet! I've got real work to do!" he glared at her as she came around and hugged him.

"Does that mean I can see him again?"

He arched a brow at her imperiously and grunted.

She gave him a kiss on his cheek, "I'll take it as a yes. I'm off to see Mr. Grumpy Gus."

"It's _Sir_ Grumpy Gus to you." James pointed out and Emily and her father broke out in laughter together as she left his office and out of the US Embassy.

…..

Hotch was on his way back home when he pulled over into a convenience store and parked by the building and dialed her number.

_Prentiss_

"Emily, It's me." Hotch said, his heart skipped hearing her voice.

_H..Aaron! Hey! How's it going?_

He smiled, his dimples deepening as he heard her correcting herself; old habits, maybe one day she would call his name easily.

"I'm fine." He paused as he looked beyond the windshield and saw cars rolling by but he was not paying any attention to them, his mind was on her. "I miss hearing your voice." He told her.

_Aww…I miss you too. How's Jack?_

Hotch smiled softly, "He's doing great, loves school."

_That's great, and you? How was work?_

"Busy, the usual never ending paperwork. You know I'm desk bound now since I'm interim Section Chief. Derek is taking my place with the team, they are still in Michigan. Their latest case is a real crazy one."

_It's not that one, is it Aaron? _She was referring to the Replicator; at the moment, that case had gone cold.

"No, this one, the UnSubs have proven to be a man and a woman to be in their 30s and they've killed 4 other couples already.."

They spent the rest of the conversation talking about the BAU current case.

As Emily arrived at the park, she had to cut the conversation short.

Hotch nodded, "I understand, I'll talk to you later."

_Yeah, Aaron._

"I love you, Emily." He said to her on the phone.

_Um, yeah…Aaron…see you later._

He pressed _END_ on the phone and pulled out of the store and headed home. He was smiling, feeling buoyed hearing her voice; he always felt calmed hearing her voice and wished she was still with the team…ah! The what if's.

Day after tomorrow he would be on his way to see her! His Emily.

He would get her back.

She belonged to him, that he knew for certain. Not that Brit!

And as for Beth…that was another issue…and the baby…

_Now, why didn't you tell Emily about Beth's pregnancy?_

Hotch ignored the voice as he continued driving home..

….

Hyde Park was a historical landmark. A romantic at heart, Emily had always wanted to see it and was not disappointed; the park was over 350 acres! The lawn was lush green and Emily could smell the freshly mowed well maintained park.

She wished she had the time to explore and walk the entire park but at the moment she was pressed for time.

The park was big, and Harry had not given her any specific area to meet. She saw people walking about, mostly tourists as they were posing in front of picturesque trees and flowery beds.

Her cell phone buzzed again, it was Harry.

"Walk over to the bench to your right..."

She turned and saw he was sitting down on a bench reading a book and a cell phone in one hand.

"Harry, that's so not super-spy looking with the cell phone. And where's the cliché newspaper?" She teased her.

She heard him sighed on the phone, "I wish you'd take this seriously. They were out of newspapers. So I had to grab this stupid paperback."

"Oh, what is it?" She grinned as she walked to him.

"I don't bloody know, don't read much anymore…don't have the time."

"What a shame…looks like a hmmm, oh it's a Jefferery Deaver's The Kill Room, oh a Lincoln Rhyme's new one! I haven't read it. Don't toss it. I want to read it when you're done."

She sat down next him as she turned off her phone, he did the same.

"Lucas and Elizabeta honeymooned in Moscow," Harry began. "They did the usual couple stuff, visiting the famous Tretyakov Gallery while they were there. The gallery was having an art exhibition."

"Let me guess, William Blake." Emily said.

Harry frowned at her, "Yes, as a matter of fact, it was…how did you knew…?"

"It is Lucas' favorite artist."

"Oh yes, Ancient of Days..."

Emily nodded, "You saw his tattoo?"

He nodded as he continued, "The artwork was not the purpose of the visit that day."

Harry paused as he allowed a group of tourists to pass them before he continued.

"Do you know about ceramic pottery called Gzhel pottery? About 30 villages southeast of Moscow produce these potteries since the early 14th century. The clay found in the region makes the pottery rare and one of its kind."

"That's interesting history lesson, Harry, what's this had to do with what happened eight years ago?" Emily pressed.

Harry turned to look at her and leaned back against the bench, "I'm getting to it, young lady." He arched his brow at her. "Since these 14th century old artifacts are work of arts, they do not need to go through x-ray machines in customs while traveling. And ceramic cannot be scanned through and as it is not metal it is an excellent medium to transport plutonium."

It took a moment for Emily to register what Harry had said.

"Did you just say plutonium?"

He nodded, "Five Gzhel jars contained sealed plutonium are among the collection coming to the British Natural Museum in a day for an exhibition."

"What is this plutonium for?" She was in shock. "What is the exposure rate?"

Harry shook his head, "It's been in the jars for a number of years, so it's not posing any dangers unless it's broken or removed. The only thing is we have to find it. Lucas is the only one who can identify them, well, he and Elizabeta."

"Great, right now, he's missing."

Harry nodded, "Lucas also knows the code to a combination to unlock a nuclear device in Moscow, that is why they are eager to get their hands on him…again."

"To arm the device?" Emily asked.

"To sell it to the Syrians."

"Syria does not have the funds or do they?"

Harry shrugged, "You tell me, the POC was killed, they were in negotiations. Apparently, someone has the funds."

"Who the hell could afford to buy it, if not the Syrians?"

"Oleg and Arkady would be your new best friends." Harry pointed out.

Emily snorted, "Some friends!"

Harry frowned, "Did you just…snorted?"

Emily looked at him, "I might have, why?"

He shook his head, "Nothing…kind of …endearing actually coming from you."

She smiled, "Aw…Harry, you like me! Don' you?"

He stood up "I didn't say that."

She stood up as well and slid her hand through the crook of his elbow, surprising him but he didn't protest as they walked out of the park.

"What am I up against, Harry?" She asked.

"Just be careful and come back safely, and don't be too rash. These people won't hesitate to pull the trigger."

She nodded.

When they reached the edge of the park, she kissed him on his cheek, "I'll get him back, Sir Harry." She turned away and left him.

He watched her, "Just get back in one piece, Emily Prentiss."

He then pulled out his phone and got a hold of Ruth.

"Ruth, it's Harry." He greeted her.

_What do you need?_

"I want you to pull me the file on Connie James." He requested.

_Connie James?_ He heard the skepticism in her voice.

"Yes, everything we have on her." He then ended the call and walked back to his car.

Before he started the ignition, he mulled over what Emily Prentiss had told him; Connie James would be the most likely person to be the one who had double crossed Lucas and sold out to the Russian eight years ago…but to whom? And for what?

Pursing his lips as he tapped the steering wheel of his car, he tried to recall what was happening around the time; Connie James was retired from -5. Living in a…bunker? Harry shook his head at the choice she made in her living accommodations. Who would live in a bunker?

Only kooks live in such weird places, including paranoid delusional…people back in the time of World War II when they were afraid of the Nuclear age and began building nuclear shelters…panic rooms.

Harry then though further of what was going on then, when the former Ministry of Defense was going to de-commission a nuclear bunker containing biological/chemical weapon testing pods.

He called Ruth again.

"It's Harry again."

_Oh, hi…I just started the search, you seemed a little anxious._

"Where does she live currently?" he asked.

_Hmmm…Surrey._

Damn! Harry thought; the bunker was located in Surrey!

Now the question was, should he pay a visit to her? What would he find? Would the pods still be there?

"Ruth?"

_I'm still here, Harry._

He sighed, "I'm going to be a little late heading back to the GRID."

_I take it you're going to Surrey_. She pointed.

"Ruth, I believe you've been badly influenced by Agent Prentiss." Harry turned on the ignition.

She laughed, _Not at all, Harry_. _Emily hasn't been here long enough._

He harrumphed gruffly, "All the same, you're sounding more and more like her, and I don't like it at all."

She giggled, _I think it's a little too late, Sir Harry._

He groaned, "Oh no, not you too, Ruth."

…..

End of Chapter 21


	22. Chapter 22

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 22

.

The BAU team landed back in Virginia late that evening. Morgan, Reid, Blake and JJ dropped their bags into their respective offices and desks before they pulled each other away and grabbed Garcia out of her lair and went to a late night diner for a much needed sit-down supper.

Dave Rossi passed on their invitation as he had an urgent business to attend.

Meeting him at their favorite bar, Hotch was into his second Scotch when Dave entered the establishment.

"Gee Aaron, is it that bad?" He greeted his young friend as he sat on the bar stool next to him. Their bartender had already brought a neatly poured Scotch in front of him.

"Thanks Max!" The bartender waved his acknowledgement as he moved on to his next patron.

"You know you've been here too long when your bartender knew what you drink before you plant your ass on the stool." Hotch raised his drink to Dave in greeting.

Dave did likewise, "You know you've been here too long when you call the bartender, _your _bartender in the possession form." Dave countered.

"Hear, hear." Hotch nodded as he took another drink.

"So how is engagement life so far?" Dave asked, after a few minutes of silence.

"It's going. How's the case?" Hotch asked.

Dave shrugged, "We caught the couple …" He spent the next ten minutes explaining about the whys, the hows and the whos.

Hotch nodded, "Well done, Dave."

"Couldn't have done it without boy genius' brains. I swear the kid's head is a computer. If something happened to him, I want to preserve his head immediately." He was referring to Spencer Reid.

Hotch chuckled, "I concur."

They were quiet again as Max their bartender came back to refresh their drinks.

"Aaron, I've known you for a very long time."

"Too long, Dave," Hotch agreed. "I know what you're going to say."

"Then tell me," Dave offered.

"I agree with the team, I hate profilers, especially ones with 20 years experienced." Hotch shook his head, his dimples deepening.

"I'm still kicking, my friend."

"Beth is pregnant."

Silence.

"Yeah, that's my reaction." Hotch said.

"Aaron! Congratulations! I'm happy for you…aren't you?"

"I am…and yet…I don't know."

"You're not? Aaron, it's kind of too late to regret it. Not to sound crass but the egg is laid and gonna hatch in oh…less than eight months."

"I'm well aware of that Dave." Hotch leaned forward with his head down, his elbows on the bar counter. "I don't know…I just …I was about to tell her that I want to break it off and she told me she was pregnant."

Dave frowned, "You don't believe her? Aaron...you sure this is yours?"

Hotch whipped his head around to face him, "Dave! What the hell! Beth is not that kind of woman!"

Dave held his hands up, "Whoa, all I'm asking, I mean you're the one that's doubting her first…"

Hotch sagged, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it."

"It's okay. I shouldn't have said that. Look you seem pretty stressed. You need to take some time off. Spend it with Beth…"

Hotch nodded as he rubbed his face, "Yeah, as a matter of fact, this is one of the thing I need to talk to you about that just suddenly came up."

"Oh yeah?"

"Beth, Jack and I are going to London."

Dave raised his eye brows, "Aaron, I suggested taking some time off, and you're running off all the way to London."

Hotch shook his head, "It's a last minute thing, Beth was chosen as an honored guest at the British Natural Museum and as it's a last minute announcement so we're add on guests. Beth got us tickets and we're leaving tomorrow morning and we'll be gone for two days. We'll be back on Monday."

"No problem, it's the weekend anyways. What's the occasion anyways?"

"You know Beth loves those pottery collections? You got one of them for Christmas last year."

Dave nodded, "Oh yeah, that white and blue ceramic dog."

"I thought it was a bear."

Dave grinned, "I thought it a bear too until Beth corrected me, I think I offended her."

Hotch shook his head, "Nah, she doesn't get mad that easily, I'm sure she'd gotten over it."

"She gave Reid a tea set and Reid tried to tell her he doesn't drink tea, only coffee. She was pretty upset about it."

Hotch looked at him, "Yeah, I remember, she hardly talked to him after that. Still didn't though."

"So…she's pretty into that stuff, huh?"

"Oh yeah, been collecting them since she was little. Her grandparents were Russians and they lived in that region so they made the craft as a livelihood or something."

"Really, so Beth is Russian?" Dave prompted.

"Her father passed a while back and that her grandparents were from Russia, that was all. She really hardly talk about her family, I gathered she was not very close to other family members aside from her father."

"I see."

"Dave…don't profile her, please. Beth is fantastic as a …a friend." Hotch said lamely. "She is caring and generous. She has Jack's interest at heart. Most women shied away from other person's child."

"True."Dave nodded. "So…London, huh?"

Hotch smiled and nodded, "London."

"Emily's there." Dave prompted.

"I'm aware of it."

"You gonna look her up?"

"London's pretty big and we're there for about a day."

"It's the weekend, Aaron."

"I might."

"Goddamnit! Give her a call!" Dave said then he saw Hotch's expression.

Hotch was smiling, "Dave, I was planning on it."

He grinned, "Atta boy. Tell her I said hey."

"I will."

Dave shook his head, still grinning, "No you're not, Aaron. You're going to forget once you see her…wait." Dave hesitated as he turned to look at Hotch again.

"What is it, Dave?"

Dave was serious now. "What the hell are you playing at, Aaron?"

"I don't understand…"

Hotch was confused as he stared at his friend as Dave continued, "I'm your friend, and you're talking to one of the best profilers in the world, Aaron. One who knows you more than you think. It's Emily all along. This regret you're still feeling. You better give it up. You were planning on flying all the way to London with your new fiancé who is just now pregnant so you can hook up with Emily behind her back, you've got another thing coming, pal!" Dave said heatedly.

Hotch shook his head, "Dave…that's not what…you've got it all wrong."

Dave got off from the stool, "Tell me you didn't let Emily know how you felt about her? Tell me you have not told her about Beth's condition? Can you tell her? Huh? You wanted to break off your engagement because of Emily, don't you, Aaron?

Hotch shook his head again and tried to talk but nothing came out.

"You can't can you? You know why?" Dave took a deep breath and calmed down before he spoke again. "Aaron, I love you very much and I love you as my brother, a brother I never had. And I love Emily as my sister. But I will not let you hurt her. She's been through enough."

"Dave, I know that, and I have no intention of hurting her but I…I…love her."

Dave was shocked, "You…you…damnit! Aaron! You really fuck everything up." He sat back on the stool as he took another drink.

"Tell me about it, Dave." He rubbed his face.

"It took you this long to figure this out? It took you…to screw another woman to realize that?"

Hotch laughed, "I'm really fucked."

Dave laughed too, "That's a fucking understatement of the year."

"What am I to do?" He groaned.

Dave shook his head, "Don't ask me, I told you; affairs of the heart…I don't mess with that."

"Oh yeah, I forgot." Hotch said sarcastically.

Dave glanced at him, "Hey don't give me any shit, you're the one that's screwed, remember?"

Hotch nodded, "I've never been in this position before, and I'm at a total loss. I feel so completely out of control and I don't like it, Dave."

His friend reached over and patted him on his back, "It's called being human, Aaron. You'll figure it out. I can't help you on this, my friend but I'm behind you all the way."

Hotch turned to look at him, "Thanks Dave, thanks for listening."

"Hey, that's no problem. I'm always here for you, _fratello._"

Hotch grinned, "My brother, yeah." They held each other's shoulders.

This time Dave and Hotch stood up from the bar, as Dave left some cash on the counter. They walked out of the establishment together.

"Have fun at the Museum, _mon Capitan_," Dave said.

"Have a great weekend, Dave."

"Well, I volunteered to take the team for a boat ride at the Potomac if the weather holds."

Hotch arched his brow, "Garcia too?"

Dave nodded, "Against my better judgment, yes."

"You're a brave man, Dave."

"That or a real foolish one."

Hotch grinned, "I'll see you next week."

"Have a good trip, Aaron."

"You too, Bon voyage!" He grinned.

Dave shook his head and waved off before he walked away to his vehicle.

…..

Lucas entered a big warehouse five kilometers from London. Inside the warehouse, there were several large wooden crates that had arrived from the Tretyakov Gallery in Russia.

He walked stealthily along the inner wall of the darkened building, his eyes accustomed to the darkness as he checked for wires and anything suspicious. Finding none, he moved into the center of the building as he ran his hand on the crates.

"I see you've made it finally my friend." Lucas looked up and saw Oleg Darshavin's familiar shadow on the second floor balcony; he was speaking in Russian.

"I'm here, Oleg." Lucas said calmly but inside, he was anything but as his hands shook.

Then he recalled a face and focused on it and began to calm as he breathed slowly.

"I've missed you, Lucas." Oleg laughed as he moved from the balcony.

Another voice laughed and said, "Oleg, you know you no longer matter."It was Elizabeta as she was standing behind Lucas, her gun pointing at him. "As neither am I."

"Oh? So, is it serious? The American bitch has captured Lucas' heart? How romantic." Lucas clenched his fist hard, his knuckles were white now.

Elizabeta laughed.

Oleg was now walking towards Lucas as Elizabeta still holding the gun, "Tie him up." Oleg held a plastic twist tie to her as she took it from him and began to strap his hands behind his back.

"Move him to the back of the warehouse, to the room inside." Oleg directed her.

Elizabeta nudged Lucas with the barrel end of the gun as he glared at her and walked behind Oleg.

The small office room was bare but for a metal chair but they sat Lucas down on the floor in the far corner from the door.

Oleg removed another plastic tie-up and strapped Lucas' legs together.

"There we go, Lucas…you'll be staying here for a while until …well, we get back. So, how have you been?" Oleg pulled down Lucas' dark shirt, revealing his shoulders' tattoos. "Ah! I see, you've not added anything since I've done this," he touched his skin. Lucas watched him but didn't say anything.

"No matter, we'll work on more later…much later, oh, I've got a new one for you. A very special one I designed just for you Lucas." Oleg smiled at him. "But first, I need the code."

"Oleg, I've already told you, I don't have it." Lucas said.

Oleg turned to face Elizabeta, "Why is it I don't believe your… husband?"

Elizabeta shrugged, "Ex, he's my ex-husband, Oleg."

"Ah, yes." He stood up and walked before her and pulled her to him and kissed her hard, Elizabeta put her arms around his body and returned his kisses heatedly. Lucas looked away.

Oleg turned from her and looked at Lucas, "What's the matter, Lucas? Does this disturb you?" He stroked her neck fondly. "Elizabeta, did you forget to tell him? You did, didn't you, you naughty darling. Lucas, Elizabeta is my beloved wife, did you know that? She had been for the last fifteen years!" He began to laugh loudly.

Lucas snapped his head as he looked at her.

Elizabeta smiled at Lucas, "Sorry, _Lucenchk_, I did love you while it lasted. You were a great lover to me."

Lucas tried to drown her voice as he concentrated on _her face_…just the way she had taught him…compartmentalize them in a box …

"My dear, will you wait for me outside?" Oleg asked Elizabeta affectionately.

She nodded and stepped out of the small room.

"Such an obedient woman, how I love her," Oleg remarked affectionately. Walking back to Lucas he knelt next to him and unbuttoned Lucas' shirt and smiled as his observed the chest tattoo, "My best work, do you still follow William Blake?"

Lucas nodded.

Oleg smiled as he used his soft voice, his persuasive voice he knew would get Lucas to consider his proposal, "Good, good, Lucas…I hope you will think about this, Arkady needs our help. The shipment is leaving day after tomorrow but our buyers are not convinced of its authenticity unless we activate it and show them. And I can't do it without you." He tried to sound desperate as he touched his tattoo lovingly.

"What's in it for me?" Lucas asked him.

Oleg smiled widely, "Ah! Lots."

"How much?"

"Millions. Several millions, especially when we completed our plutonium sales."

"You have a buyer?"

Oleg was grinning happily, "Oh Lucas, I'm happy you're so involved in this. She's liaising with an Egyptian."

"An Egyptian?" Lucas swallowed hard.

Oleg nodded, "Apparently he wants it badly and has the cash." Oleg was distracted with Lucas' other body works.

"Who is this liaison?" Lucas asked softly as he watched Oleg.

Oleg shrugged, "Some American bitch who works in the museum, she is coming to London tomorrow…Beth something…don't know...Elizabeta knows her."

Elizabeta came back to the room, "Oleg, it's time, the workers are here."

Oleg looked up and nodded as he pulled out a syringe filled with a clear liquid and looked at Lucas, "Sorry Lucas, time to take a little nap while the workers get to work on the crates." He stabbed the syringe into Lucas' arm and he was instantly knocked out as he slumped over on the bare floor.

Oleg watched him for a moment and then stood up, "Okay Elizabeta my love, let's get those workers going." He walked out of the room and locked it after him.

….

A kilometer from the British of Natural Museum, in a big work van;

Emily had just pulled up next to the van, as she walked to the vehicle, she saw that the code required a five letter code sequence. She thought for a moment and entered a first set but it was the wrong one so she tried again. She smiled when she had it right on the second try. "Easy as apple pie." She muttered as she went in.

"Hey guys," She said as she looked about the interior of the vehicle. On one end of the wall, it was lined with multiple flat screens and Fanta wearing the widest grin possible was under them with his keyboards and various equipments Emily could not identify nor did she wanted to get him to start identifying or they could be there for days.

Behind them, was a spacious area where Sam and the rest of the guys were sitting as they set up their weapons and gears. This, Emily was more familiar as she recognized automatic AK-47s with suppressors, SA-80, StG-44 with several cartridges, and a couple of daggers.

"Hey, I'm swiping these." Emily picked up the daggers and tucked them each into her boot as Sam nodded his okay, "Careful with them, they're pretty sharp."

She nodded.

They already had their body vest on when they looked up and greeted Emily.

"I see you figured the pass code," Bob grinned. "Pay up guys." He held his hand out as Frankie and Waltie, and Fanta handed him a ten pound note each.

"What? You guys taking up bets that I can't figure out the entry code?" The losers nodded sadly.

She shook her head sadly as she smiled. "Haven't I taught you guys any better? You shame me."

"But how did you figure it out?" Frankie asked her

"What is my call sign? What are your call signs?" When they nodded their heads, she rolled her eyes up.

"Then again, _APPLE_? That's really original." She grinned at them.

"I told you she'd figure it out!" Walt glared at Frankie as he whispered to him.

Frankie frowned as he whispered back, "I thought she might not make the connection, Waltie!"

"Well, she did, didn't she? Damn Yanks…nothing gets passed that one, I tell ya."

Frankie nodded, "I hear ye, I hear ye brother. I bet she put a bloody spell on all of us!"

"Maybe she she's not Snow White but the real Wicked Witch of the West or something like it."

"Or!" Suddenly Emily came between them as they almost jumped with a start as they didn't realized she had over heard them. "if you guys would pay attention to your bedtime stories better, the Wicked Witch of the West is in the Wizard of Oz! Snow White's wicked step mother is just the Evil Witch. Why can't you guys get my fairy tales right?" She straightened up and walked away from them as she shook her head.

Sam was shaking his head as he cleaned his weapons, he whispered to her, "Depraved."

She giggled for a while before she cleared her throat.

"Okay, listen up…here's the latest on Target Bravo…"She began to brief them on their job.

She turned to Fanta and sat next to him and stare at the monitors, "What do you have, Fanta?"

The kid ignored her as he continued typing away.

Emily grabbed his bottle of soda and waved it in front of him, "If you don't update me in one second, I'll pour this and the rest of your stash outside right now…and change the damn code."

"We just established link in the warehouse. Targets Alpha and Bravo are supervising some crates into a truck marked British Natural Museum. So far, no suspicious activity."

Emily smiled as she returned his drink back to him, "That's better, kid." She patted his head. "Much better.

Fanta nodded, his hands shook a little as he grabbed his soda bottle and sipped on it deeply.

Emily frowned as she stood up and walked to the door and looked back at her team; Lucas was still missing, he had not called her yet; it was the first time he had stood her up for dinner, not that she was hungry which was a first for her.

No, she was really worried about him and that made her lose her appetite.

Shaking her head, Emily turned around and moved back to her team and sat with Fanta.

She decided to stay with them or until she heard from Lucas, or until something came up.

To take her mind off the situation, she leaned over and grabbed one of Fanta's laptop and got on the Skype online network, after she had send off a couple of text to JJ and Garcia and waited.

…

Back in Virginia, Hotch and Jack were completely packed when he received a phone call from his ex-sister-in-law, Jessica, who informed him that Jack's best friend and classmate had the Chicken Pox.

Since Jack has not had the childhood disease, and now had been exposed, he was not allowed to travel out of the country.

Needless to say, both father and son were devastated about the news. Jack was inconsolable as Jessica was on the way to collect her nephew. But to make up for his missing trip, Jack's best friend's mother had decided to have him over for the duration, so both he and Jason could spend their Chicken Pox slumber party together!

Now an elated Jack couldn't wait till his Aunt to pick him up!

Hotch on the other hand was not happy about traveling alone with Beth. He was originally looking forward to spending time with Jack in London…and hopefully with Emily.

Now, maybe he might be able to get together with just Emily! Alone.

As he waited for Jessica to arrive, Hotch was imagining several scenarios involving Emily. He hoped she had a tub in her apartment. He was sure she did. He remembered Garcia mentioned when she was there a month ago with Derek when they over there helping Emily settled in.

Ah yes, Garcia did confirmed that it was part of Emily's essentials in hunting for a particular apartment, that there must be a bathtub included, the larger the better.

And the BAU team had sent her boxes of floral candles and bath necessities as apartment- warming gifts, including Hotch himself, although he was not paying much attention at that time, he had just given Garcia some cash in the pool.

He hoped Emily had not used all the products but that was all right, he'd get more.

"Daddy?" he felt a tug on his shirt as he was roused from his day-dreaming.

"Yeah buddy?"

"The door bell, I think it's Aunt Jessie," Jack was practically jumping in anticipation.

Hotch grinned at his son as they moved to the door and opened the door and saw it was Beth with luggages.

"Hi guys! Are you all packed?" She bent to pick up the luggages but Hotch moved to help her.

Jack's shoulders fell when he realized it was not his aunt and turned back to walk away from her.

She frowned at him and seeing Hotch, smiled again.

Hotch had bent down to pick up her bag so he didn't see her reaction to Jack.

"No Beth, let me…you shouldn't be doing it." He said.

"Aaron…I can still lift some bags. But thank you, honey. Um...Is everything all right with Jack?"

Hotch straightened from the bags and shook his head, "Er, Jack is not going with us, Beth."

Beth's smile faltered, "He's not? But why? I was looking forward to him going…he's going to ruin my pla…I mean Aaron, I don't understand?"

Hotch arched a brow at her as he said, "Let's get your luggage in and we'll talk, Beth."

She nodded as she walked in with a carry-on while Hotch carried a bigger baggage.

After bringing in one more, Hotch closed the door and led her into the living room and to the couch, Jack was nowhere around.

"Aaron, what's going on? I thought Jack is going with us?" Beth turned to face him.

Hotch shook his head and explained to her about the change of plans when the door bell rang again.

"I'll get it, I bet it's Aunt Jess this time!" Jack was yelling across the hallway as he ran to the front door.

"I'll be back, have a seat." Hotch stood up and walked to the front door just as Jack had opened it.

"Hey, Jack!" Jessica greeted her nephew.

"Aunt Jess! I'm all ready! So this Chicken box, do Jason and I eat the chicken in the box?" he asked.

Jessica and Hotch laughed as Jessica looked up at Hotch, "Hi Aaron, ready for your own adventure in London?"

He nodded, "Yeah Jess."

She frowned at him, "You don't sound too excited, is everything all right?" she stretched her neck a little and saw Beth on the couch in the living room and looked back at Hotch and gave him a knowing look, "I see."

Jessica had never got on with Beth, not since the incident at the school when Beth had overstepped her authority and tried to create problems.

Hotch shook his head as Jack had gone to his room to get his overnight bag, he said in a low tone to Jessica, "Beth is pregnant."

Jessica raised her brows, "Congratulations, Aaron," but she didn't smile nor did she sounded enthusiastic for him.

Jack came back lugging the heavy bag, "Okay Aunt Jess…I'm ready." He was panting.

Jessica grinned, "What do you have in there? Your whole bedroom?"

Jack laughed, "No…almost. I got my books, my Thor, and Hulk. Jason wants to play with my cars and then maybe color some of the dino…."

"Whoa...buddy! I think you've packed your entire bedroom!" Hotch grinned at his son. "You and Jason are going to have so much fun, you're not going to miss your old man at all."

Jack looked guilty, "I'm sorry daddy, I will miss you. But you'll have fun with her." He glanced over to the living room.

Hotch nodded, "Yeah, I'll bring you back something…maybe another dinosaur."

Jack smiled again, "Okay Daddy," turning to his aunt, "I'm ready, Aunt Jess."

Jessica looked at him, "Okay, give your dad a hug."

Jack nodded as he went to Hotch and hugged him, "I love you Daddy."

Hotch hugged his son tightly, "I love you too, buddy, have fun at Jason's."

Jack nodded as he reached up and held Jessica's hand, "Bye Daddy."

"Bye Jack, I love you."

"Bye Jessica, thanks again." Hotch nodded to her.

Jessica reached over and touched his shoulder momentarily, "Take care, Aaron." She looked over at Beth, then at her ex-brother-in-law affectionately before she spontaneously leaned in and kissed his cheek and turned from him and walk away with Jack.

Hotch grinned softly as he watched them walk away as Jack skipped off while chatting happily with his Aunt as she looked fondly at him.

…

End of Chapter 22


	23. Chapter 23

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 23

.

As it turned out, Emily was surprised to find her former BAU sans Hotch team came online and Skype!

She grinned widely as she sat up in front of the screen and greeted them fondly.

"Hey everyone!"

She marveled at how on the small 17 inch screen fitted the faces of Dave Rossi, Derek Morgan, Penelope Garcia, JJ, Spencer Reid, even new comer Alex Blake, and Will LaMontagne and JJ'son Henry!

They all shouted hi together to her jovially, drawing the attention of her team as they gathered around her to looked at them.

"Gor Emily, who's the pretty blonde?" Waltie grinned.

Emily looked up at him, "That is JJ and she is married to him," pointing at Will who waved back, "And that is their son Henry who also waved to him grinning.

Waltie groaned, "All the pretty ones are always taken."

"Hey!" Garcia frowned back. "I'm not, and I'm still available and pretty if I may say so myself, my dear!"

Waltie looked at her with hope, "You are? I mean you're available?" She nodded, "Hi, Penelope Garcia, Technical Analysis, Extraordinaire, nice to meet you."

Waltie grinned, "Walter Dressen but everyone calls me Waltie, pleasure is mine, ma'am. Say, how about a phone number, pretty lady?"

"Hey!" Emily frowned at them, "This is not love connection. I'm skyping here. Do it at your own time guys. Garcia, I'll give you Walt's number later. Geez, scat you guys, go shoot someone's toes or something." She waved at her team but they did not budged and Emily was grinning. "But I have to warn you PG, Waltie is totally shy as can be so you are not to bully him at all with your bossy way."

"Emily," Garcia frowned at her on the screen, "I am appalled, I would never ever do that to Walter"

Waltie grinned and blushed, "She called me Walter. Aw shucks!" He bowed his head down. His team was staring at him in disbelief, including Emily.

"Oh my god, PG. Look, he is blushing! I mean his damn face is freaking red! Like tomato red, red!" Emily was laughing as was her team.

"Hey, stop laughing at my new boyfriend!" Garcia was getting angry. She turned to Derek.

"Derek, tell Em to stop teasing him!"

Morgan leaned down, "Come on Emily, spare the big man some dignity."

Waltie blushed more as he put his arms across his chest.

"OH MY GOD!" Garcia exclaimed as she was ogling at him, "Are those real live pecs on his arms? Emily, you didn't tell me you work with a pair of pecs in your team?"

"Hey, hey, mamma, I have pesc too. I'm taking some offense to that right now." Morgan frowned at her as he waved his hand over her but she had not blinked as she continued to stare at Waltie's biceps.

Emily shrugged, "Never noticed them before. I mean, Sam and the rest of the guys have them too, right guys?" She leaned over to her team.

Sam, Walt and Bob began to flex their arms and soon were showing off their biceps as well.

"OH MY DEAR HEAVEN!" JJ, Alex and Garcia's eyes and jaws dropped down as they were staring at them on the screen. "Garcia…print the screen ASAP…um…hold the pose, boys, Em, move your head out of the screen please…yeah good. Got it Pen?" JJ commanded Emily's team as Garcia began typing something on her keyboard.

Emily shook her head.

"Um, Emily?" Alex leaned in a little. "Any chance there's an opening in your team at all?"

"Oh yes, make that two openings." JJ chimed in.

"JJ," Will, her husband glared at her. "Have you forgotten about me, _cher_?" He asked her with his Southern drawl.

"Who are you?" JJ looked at him in askance but they knew she was teasing him as she began to laugh with him in a moment.

"Uh, hello? Count me in… I happened to make a very valuable contribution as I can be your new technical analysis." Garcia looked at Emily annoyingly.

Emily was laughingly, "Sorry ladies, I'm filled up at the moment, and sorry PG, I have an excellent techie geek here." Fanta leaned into the monitor and waved at it.

"Um, Em was that a child just now?" Garcia tried to look back. "I swear I thought I saw a little kid just waved at us…Hey little boy! Come back here! Yoo whoo! Helloo! Are you even old enough to shave? Emily, do you know about the laws of employing child labor?"

"PG, Fanta is 17 years…"

"18, boss…I'm 18…" He cut in.

"18!" Garcia exclaimed. "He barely passed elementary school!"

"He graduated secondary school at 16 and he finished college last year. Like Dr. Reid over there he is a genius too."

Perked, Reid leaned in, "What is his IQ?"

Fanta leaned back in, "189." He grinned.

Reid frowned, "Oh…that…that's great."

Emily patted Fanta's back, "Reid's IQ is 187 but what is a couple of point's difference?"

Reid nodded, "Actually, Emily it does matter because one point could represent one whole subject of a completely separate matter like ion or iota and two points even more bigger and can be objectively argued that one particular person is much more talented in one certain area but not so in another and then it can be also argued that…"

Garcia, and the rest of the BAU team simultaneously rolled their eyes.

"Reid, Reid!"

Reid looked at Derek, "Huh?"

"Shut. Your. Pie. Hole." Derek grinned.

"Amen." Alex nodded.

Dave leaned in, "Em, are you free tomorrow?"

Emily grinned, "Why Dave? Hooking me up for a long distance romance?"

Sam chimed in, "Sorry fella, Emily here is very spoken for. She is shagging up with a real life spy…"

"Sam!" Emily exclaimed but she was grinning.

Garcia and JJ whooped loudly as Reid and Morgan stepped away from them shaking their heads muttering about animals and viciousnesses. "WOMEN!"

"What?" Garcia and JJ were grinning, "You mean it's official with him? That tall, dark and handsome blue eyed James Bond look-a-like, well better than Bond…Lucas North?"

Bob laughed, "You Yanks are so stereotypical, not all spies are James Bond. No, Lucas is no James Bond but _she_ definitely got _him_ wrapped around _her_ fingers."

"OOHH!"Garcia and JJ were teasing Emily loudly as Derek and Reid covered their ears again."NOT AGAIN!"

"We met him a couple of weeks ago, and yes, he is definitely very nice looking! Way better looking than James Bond! Way to go Emily."JJ laughed.

"So, did anything happen? Are they official? I mean really official?" Garcia was looking at Sam.

He nodded, "Oh yeah, he called her his girlfriend earlier, didn't he Bob?" Bob nodded, as did the rest of them.

Emily blushed deeply.

Then Sam continued, "And they went out of town for three days alone. If you know what I mean?" He grinned.

"No way!" Garcia said.

"Oh way!" Bob laughed. "You should see the way they first met. Remember fellas? She whooped him and got him down on the ground and sat on him in a _very_ compromising position!" They all guffawed loudly.

The BAU team was shocked and began to laugh at her.

"Em, go to the British Natural Museum tomorrow." Dave grinned. "There might be a surprise there."

Emily suddenly stopped smiling as she sat up, "What did you say, Dave?"

"What? I said go to the Natural Museum. There's a surprise." Dave's smile began to fade as he noticed Emily was not smiling anymore. "Emily?"

"Dave, what surprise are you talking about?" She had a bad feeling.

The rest of her team was leaning into the monitor as well.

"Well, it was to be a surprise but er..shit…act as a surprise anyways…"

"Dave," Emily was frowning. "Is there something going on?"

"Okay…Hotch and Beth are going to be there. Beth is an honored guest for this Russian collection exhibit. Her grandparents used to work in that region before they came to the US or something like that."

She shook her head, "Oh, sorry Dave. My mistake, I thought it was something else. Hey guys, I've got to go. I'm getting hungry and I've got to feed these fellas too. By the way, why are you in one place? What's the occasion?"

JJ grinned, "Dave is taking us on his new boat on the Potomac, we're spending the night at his place before we sail off early in the morning."

Emily raised her brow, "PG you know the boat will be moving constantly?"

Derek grinned, "Yeah, I'm loading her on Dramamine." Naming the motion sickness relief drug.

"Actually it's not a boat," Dave corrected them. "It's a 100 foot luxury yacht."

They all turned to face him.

"A what? Why don't you call it a mansion on water, Dave?" Alex said in a stunned voice.

"Man, you don't even have a boating license." Derek said.

Dave shook his head and grinned, "Don't need one, the yacht came with its captain and crew."

"Oh man, we might not even come back to Virginia." Garcia smiled. She turned around to look at Emily in the monitor. "If you hear on the news about a missing BAU team at sea, you know it's us, don't panic my dearest brunette. We're going to play 'Gilligan's island and the three-hour tour and get accidentally lost'." She indicated with the quotations gestures."

"Garcia you're without a doubt crazy as a loon. But we're hungry and got to go. It's good to see you guys again. Take care, and I love you all to bits! Dave, please don't drown them. Reid wear a life preserver!" Reid nodded as he waved at her.

"Take care Em!" The BAU team waved their good bye at her and the INTERPOL team.

As soon as the online network link was severed, Emily turned to her team.

"Well that just threw a spanner in the tool box." Bob remarked.

"Monkey wrench, Bob. Threw a monkey wrench in the plans. Oh my god. You just destroyed the idiom!" The team snickered at him.

"What's a monkey wrench?" Fanta asked. "I've never seen or heard of it." He began to type the word on his laptop and called it up, "It's a tool. It really is a tool. I thought it's a toy like a monkey like toy or something."

Emily began banging her head on the table, "I really literally work with a bunch of ape, gorillas and monkeys."

The guys chuckled.

She straightened again and smacked Fanta's hand, "Pay attention, kid."

He nodded and stopped typing and sat with his hands under his thighs.

Emily frowned at him. "Guess that'll work. Okay. You heard about this piece of info about Hotch and Beth coming about this ceramic exhibit."

"Who is this Hootch? And Beth?" Frankie asked.

"Hotch," She corrected him. "I forgot, Hotch is FBI Senior Special Agent in Charge Aaron Hotchner, BAU, he is as of now the interim Section Chief for the division in the Special Units. And he was my former boss when I worked over there."

"Aren't you a SSA?" Frankie asked again.

Emily nodded, "Well I'm actually the same rank as Hotch now…SSAIC." She grinned at him.

"Nice, Emily."

"Thanks guys. Anyways back to the case, Fanta, look up Beth Clemmons. I want a complete history on her. Everything you can dig up. This is no coincidence she is here for this exhibit." She recalled what Harry Pearce had told her about the five containers with the plutonium.

She stood up, "I'm going to get some dinner for everyone."

"You want some company, boss?" Sam offered.

She looked at him in his military gear and smiled, "I think you'll scare the pizza joint if we appear in there."

Sam looked down and nodded, "Yeah, kinda stick out there, huh?"

"I'll just go by myself, I'm sure I can handle ..what? three boxes…"

"Six, boss, six, we're hungry. And the works…load it with cheese." Bob grinned.

Fanta shook his head, "No cheese here!" He raised his hand, "Lactose intolerant."

The guys laughed at him, "Wuss!"

"Hey! Be nice!" Emily glared at them then turned to Fanta, "What do you want on your pizza, kid?"

"Just Pepp and sausage, thanks boss." He grinned.

Emily nodded, "Pepperoni and sausage for the kid, and the works for the rest of you?"

"Oh, and anchovies!" Frankie chimed in.

The rest of them groaned, "Aw no you're not, you're eating that outside!"

"No I'm not!" He argued.

"Hey!"Emily shouted at them, "I'm getting you boys a pizza each, you can fight when I leave after that."

"You're not staying?" Sam asked her.

"No, I'm getting a headache hanging out with you boys."

"Okay." They nodded.

"I'll be back. Fanta don't forget the info." She left the van and took a deep breath and muttered; _I'm glad I'm an only child!_

As Emily climbed into her car, she quickly sent a text to Hotch and waited for him to return her call…

….

In Virginia, at Hotch's house while he was talking to Jessica at the door, Beth saw that Hotch had left his cell phone on the couch next to her and it was buzzing; she frowned when she saw Emily Prentiss' face on the screen and a text message;

_Hotch, please call me ASAP! _

_EP._

Beth looked up and saw Hotch's back was facing her as he continued talking to Jessica.

She picked up his phone and quickly hit 'DELETE' on the call.

Then she went further more in his and typed 'BLOCK' on Emily's phone list and then put his phone back on the couch and leaned back.

…

Emily frowned; she had sent three texts to Hotch and he had not called her back.

She was worried about him now, as well. First Lucas, now Hotch.

Great, just great; _what's next?_ She wondered.

An hour later, having delivered dinner to her team, she drove home. She tried Hotch again…still no nothing.

Sleep that evening eluded her as she lay on her bed, Sergio occupying on her pillow.

"Hog." She muttered as she grabbed the other pillow and laid her head and smelled Lucas' scent on it.

She closed her eyes and hoped against hope he was fine.

.

….

End of Chapter 23


	24. Chapter 24

**Thank you guest reviewer CountryGirl and Taylor!; yeah, Beth is not a very nice one here!Thank you for your reviews !**

**.Thanks to my fabu Beta! So glad that you're back!**

**.**

.

INTERPOL Intrigue – Chapter 24

.

As it was a Friday evening when they arrived, Hotch and Beth saw that Heathrow was insanely busy.

"I wish you had used your law enforcement credentials, it would certainly speed everything up." Beth pointed out.

They were standing in a very long line in customs at the airport.

"That would be abusing my position, Beth." He shook his head. "Can't use it unless I'm here on official business, but as it is, this is a personal and leisure trip." He tried to smile at her, lightening the mood; it had been a very long trip.

The economy class section was crowded and cramped and there were a couple of upset babies who had cried most of the way here, all 10 hours of it!

Needless to say, no one on the flight had gotten any sleep at all, or attempted to read a book as it was quite hard to concentrate with two squalling infants.

They had managed to finally fall asleep just when the plane was making its descent.

Everyone was very eager to disembark and they had cast disgusted looks on the harried parents as they past them in the aisles.

Hotch and Beth had the misfortune to be seated next to one of the unhappy infants and as the flight was crowded, they weren't able to change their seats so they were stuck for the entire duration.

Therefore, that was the reason they were quite irritable with each other in the customs line.

Hotch was glad that Jack was not with them, he knew his son would be just as irritable and would be impossible to deal with.

Beth was looking around, "What is taking these people so long?"

"I'm sure they're being cautious, Beth."

She looked at him and smiled, "You're right, Aaron. I'm sorry for being such a bear. This flight was such a disaster and now the line..."

Hotch felt guilty as he gathered her into his arms, "I'm sorry Beth. When we get into the hotel, I'll draw you a bath and we'll soak in it together, I promise, how about it?"

She looked up at him and nodded, "I'd like that very much, Aaron. You're so wonderful to me. I'm glad we came here." She put her head down on his chest again.

Hotch took a deep breath, "So am I, Beth." He rubbed her back slowly up and down.

Finally, their line began to move.

"Hey, sweetie, look we're moving." Hotch nudge her.

She moved her head and smiled, "Yeah, progress."

Hotch grinned at her, "You're so positive."

"Of course, Aaron, that's how you achieve your goals or you'd get left behind with nothing." She bent down to pick up her bags as she moved forward in the line.

Hotch stared at her with a frown as he followed her.

…

Emily was almost asleep when Fanta called her.

"Boss, er…did I wake you?"

"No," She shook her head as she sat up on her bed, Sergio cracked an eye opened, gave a yawn and rolled over and promptly fell back to sleep. "What do you have, Fanta?"

"Nothing good, you ready?"

"Spill it, kid."

"Beth Clemmons does not exist at all."

"Come again?" Emily frowned.

"Okay, okay, let me rephrase that; there was a Beth Clemmons but she died in infancy in 1964 in Canton, Ohio. This Beth Clemmons is not the real one, she used a dead ID. She bought in the black market, very common because it came with a legal social security number."

"So, who was she before she was Beth Clemmons?" Emily asked.

"Olga Volkov was born in Omsk, Northern Russia in 1963…"

"Wait, that makes her, what? 50 years old, damn! She's older than Hotch!" Emily laughed. "Go on, Fanta."

"Yeah boss, um…she moved to the US when she was 13 with her father, Anton. Mother died when she was born. Grandparents worked in the …coal mines and died of lung disease in their 40s."

"Good work, kid. So how did this collection of Gzhel get started, and her working in the museum?"

"Father was involved in stolen goods, beginning small stuff, served time for a while. Had a record in the Russian prison for a time, then he came to the US in the mid 80s, he continued his 'career' by shipping stolen goods and then he found out he had cancer, he began training an assistant."

"Let me guess, his daughter, AKA Beth Clemmons." Emily added.

"That's right, boss."

"Dear old dad served time in Russian prison must have met Oleg at one point." Emily thought out loud. "The only thing I can't connect is the shipment of plutonium in the ceramic jars."

"Probably when the fake Beth Clemmons began to work at the museum, somehow she found the plutonium."

"Maybe, I guess we'll find out tomorrow at the museum." She yawned.

Fanta laughed and yawned as well.

"Well, I'm going to get some shut eye…good work, kid. Get some rest."

"Thanks Snow." He said cheekily.

"Night, Dopey."

Emily got out of bed and padded into her kitchen and got a drink of water as she stood over the window overlooking her neighbourhood.

She wondered why Hotch was not answering her messages; it was not like him to ignore her despite the way they had parted two weeks ago, surely he was more mature than that!

Could it have been Beth? After all she was the one that had accessed her files and knew of Ian Doyle. If she did, Emily realized, she herself was in more danger… _Shit!_

She heard a soft click in the front door and turned around quickly but was too late when she felt something hit her head hard and everything went black.

…..

It was late in the evening when Harry arrived in Surrey.

The bunker was deserted except for a couple of Labradors who were approaching towards Harry with curiosity.

Harry walked to them and stood still while he let them sniffed at him and after a few minutes' determination that he posed no menace, the dogs whined a few times before they trotted back to the bunker and laid down on the ground.

"Good puppies," he muttered before walking towards the front gate.

Looking around him, he saw that it was quiet and wondered if Connie was indeed at home.

Rattling the knob, he saw that it was unlocked; alarm bells sounded within his head as he pulled out his gun and opened the door.

"Connie, it's Harry, Harry Pearce. I was in the neighborhood and dropped by for chat," he moved about quietly as held the gun downwards and talking out loud; he didn't want to startle her just in case he freaked her. He knew she would be armed too.

Former -5 officers, whether they were field agents or analysts, were trained to be prepared. American Boy Scouts weren't the only ones that held that creed; be prepared, indeed!

"Connie? If you're around, how about coming out and greet your old friend Harry here? After all, we haven't seen each other for a while?" He continued inside. He saw that he was in what looked like a kitchen; meticulously maintained. He knew Connie's habits; she was a stickler for order. Everything had to have order and a place of its own, neat and tidy. Nothing out of order.

He remembered how she blasted one of the lowly officer when she placed a coffee mug next to her computer; she gave her a twenty minute lecture on how coffee could spilled on the hardware and destroyed the software and thereby destroying vital information, and an entire network destroyed just because of one cup of fifty pence coffee.

The poor young lady had asked for a transfer instantly that very day. Not that he blamed her, Harry had felt awful for her although he hadn't shown it.

He was now in another small room and he saw that he was in an office area as there was a desk, a laptop and a couple of metal cabinets. One of them was unlocked.

Looking into the cabinet, he saw a piece of paper sticking out as if it had not been put in properly. Harry pulled it out and began to read it and saw it was a print out of an email.

It was from Arcady Kachimov, a correspondent between him and Connie James!

It seemed they were familiar with each other as they used familiar tones.

The date was today! This afternoon…They had been maintaining contact and were discussing terms of Gzhel II.

Harry frowned; what the heck is Gzhel II? The only thing he knew about Gzhel was the pottery!

Great, were they still pursuing the plutonium?

Reading further Harry began to pale, and nothing made him pale easily, he began to fold the paper and tucked it into his pocket and walked briskly down into the bunker.

Grabbing the nearby flashlight, he opened a heavy door and shined the light and swallowed hard. In the old biological/chemical testing pods, three of them were missing!

_Damn you Connie!_

Getting out of the bunker he moved up the stairs when he almost fell over something …or someone.

Shining the flashlight down he saw it was Connie James! Moving closer he saw she had been strangled to death with a wire garrote.

Shaking his head, he continued his way out of the bunker.

Getting into his vehicle and drove off, he thought to himself; why three pods? Who could have taken them?

The only one he could think of was Arcady Kachimov

So, Emily was right; Connie James had been the mole, she was the mole all along who had betrayed Lucas. The email correspondence had just confirmed and put Lucas in danger. She wanted Lucas silenced as he knew about the nuclear sales and who had been responsible. His revelations could bring about a coupe within the Russian lesser army and eventually disperse them, thereby strengthening the current Russian regime. With a nuclear crisis, Russian could topple, and Syria could strike, as well as Iran and Iraq. That was the grand plan all along. Ten years in the making and one man was about to destroy it. Kachimov's orders were to eliminate him.

Harry pulled his phone out and called Ruth and quickly relayed all he knew to her.

"Okay what do I do next, Harry?" Ruth asked.

"Get a hold of Emily. She knows where Lucas is."

There was a pause as she tried to contact Emily.

"Harry, she is not answering her phone." Ruth sounded worried.

"Damn it. Fucking shit." He cursed.

"Um…not to make light of the situation, Harry, but I think Emily has influenced you more than she did me."

"Not now, Ruth, I'm trying to think." He said abruptly.

"Yes, boss."

Harry sighed, "Ruth…"

"Harry…just hurry back here."

"Yes ma'am." He ended the line and continued driving back to London.

Harry decided to make another phone call, after talking for a few minutes he ended to the call as well and feeling slightly calmed, he drove the rest of the way back to the GRID.

…..

In the van, near the Museum, Fanta was awakened by a phone call.

"Fanta? This is Clyde Easter."

Oh, hello Mr. Easter."

"Where is your boss?"

"Um, she went home, said she'd had enough of us."

"Oh…well, she is not. I'm at her apartment…being mauled by a …feline."

Fanta grinned, "That would be Sergio, he is harmless, sir… wait, did you say she is not there?" He stopped smiling.

"Her bloody cell phone is on the kitchen counter, her door in unlocked. There is no sign of her. Yes, I would say, something is not right. Where are you guys at?"

"We are near the Museum of the Natural History."

Clyde thought for a moment, "Where are the crates?"

"The shipment are inside, they were brought in earlier. But Emily didn't say anything about moving in. We're not sure if it's it, Mr. Easter, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure yet. Emily's missing, North is missing. I don't bloody like the sound of it."

"Yeah, so what do you want us to do?" Fanta asked.

"Get your merry men and get into the museum and play body guards to those crates. Do not let anyone open them under any circumstances."

"Roger that, Mr. Easter."

Fanta stood up from his desk and went to the inner room and began to rouse the others who were snoozing and quickly relayed what Clyde wanted them to do.

Sam frowned, "Should not have let Emily leave by herself."

Bob shook his head, "I know, I hope she's okay." He was quiet and worried.

Frankie spoke, "These people are Russians…they aren't known for their gentleness…"

"Enough fellas." Sam exclaimed, "This is Emily we're talking about. She is tough, she can handle a couple of Russian shits."

"Yeah, I read her files, she had been in a couple of scuffles and yet, she is still here…"

"Why the devil were you reading her files, Bob?" Sam asked.

Face red, Bob replied "That was before she was our boss, when it was announced she joined our team. I always make sure I know who we're working with."

Waltie nodded, "Yeah, I did too. She was involved in some huge crap and later got her crap beaten up, stabbed and literally almost died. But she's a fighter. Makes me admire her even more."

Frankie nodded, "And look, she handed me a good one the other day, I didn't tell anyone," He stood up and pulled up his shirt and showed them his sternum which was black and blue.

They chuckled, "She did this to you?" Sam nodded at him.

"Yeah. And I gave her a good whooping too but she didn't show any pain at all, I tell you, I don't know how she did it." Frankie shook his head.

Sam grinned, "I do." They all turned to him, including Fanta.

"We had a training session one evening, and I was beating her up pretty good but she didn't show much pain, letting it absorbed into her. And she was hitting back just as hard until I was hurting pretty bad. It was one really bad hit to the back of my shoulder and I fell hard that I stopped and asked her how she did it, taking all the pain and all. And this is what she said and you know it takes practice and lots of concentration."

"Damn it Sam, what is it?" Frankie asked impatiently.

Sam held his hand up, "I'm getting to it, Frankie. She told me a long time ago, when she went into combat training with the CIA and they took her to some POW training facilities. It was mainly an observation exercise but she talked the instructor into teaching her how to conduct interrogations techniques and he told her that in order to do so, she had to put herself in the other shoe. So she was then treated as a POW. The stories she told me was no walk in the park, guys. She was subjected to torture and mental abuse." Sam explained.

"Did they… you know... because she is a female, subject her to…" Bob couldn't say it as he had four step girls but the reality was there.

Sam shook his head, "No, they don't do that, it's a training exercise anyways. But she said it was enough to screw with your head. We don't even have any training available here in British army.

"But part of it was that they showed her how to compartmentalize her pain."

"What is that?" Frankie asked him.

Sam grinned, "That's how she handled pain…imagine pain as an object, like a ball. You then put the ball in a box. Then your mind, imagine it is made up of shelves, then you put these boxes up in its shelves and shoved in there. Same goes as other mental tortures. Compartmentalize."

"Hang on, you mean they were beating her up and expected her to compartmentalize the pain, and this is all done as part of training exercise?" Walt grimaced. "That's barbaric training."

"That is why those trainings are not bandied about in public. Only basic trainings are known worldwide to the media. If the press knew about this kind of training, they'd have a field day. You do understand why I'm telling you? Sam asked them.

"Yeah, no one would believe us anyways." Waltie shrugged.

Sam nodded firmly. "She really is tough."

"You better believe it. Especially when she worked in that BAU team, the real beatings she took to protect her team. Remember you met that geek kid? She protected him a couple of years ago. This crazed psycho really took a pot shot at her when she covered for the geek and told him that she was the undercover FBI agent. He slammed her into a mirror pretty hard. She told me that until now, every now and then, she gets a piece of shard coming out of her head, really ugly shit."

"Blimey! That has to fucking hurt!"

Sam shrugged, "Compartmentalized."

"I'm beginning to hate that bloody word!"

"Like or not, it saved her many times, and her sanity."

Bob laughed, "Yeah, and having to deal with your shitty self."

"Okay, let's get our gears ready and get your ears in." Sam said, referring to their microphones.

"Fanta, are you getting us all mic'ed up?"

Fanta looked up at one of his screens and gave Sam a thumb up.

"Let's drive up closer to the Museum and parked near the dock." Sam got into the driver's seat and started the vehicle.

…

End of Chapter 24


	25. Chapter 25

**Thank you so much to my BETA – Magpie of Silver! You are the best!**

**And to my new British friend, lovelyja ! thank you for keeping me in line with British terminology! That way I wouldn't offend you Brit blokes! ;)**

**And to all who add this on your fav/follow/add/alert to your Story! Thank you!**

**I'm going to apologize in advance as this chapter will have quite a few cuss words…okay a lot! But for this story, it is necessary.**

**.**

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 25

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"Put her in here, Ivan."

The two men dumped Emily on a chair roughly in the warehouse which was a few kilometers from the Museum.

Emily was awakening but the giant lump and pain in the back of her neck was something awful and making her sick to her stomach, her hands were bound in front of her with plastic twist tie but thankfully her legs were not.

Blinking her eyes opened, she saw that she was in a warehouse and there were crates about her.

"Well, well, well, I guess Sleeping Beauty awakens," Emily heard a feminine voice to her right, it had a thick Russian accent.

"Where am I?" Emily asked.

The dark-haired female came and stood in front of her, "You are our guest, Agent Prentiss, make yourself comfortable."

Emily grinned, "You seem to know who I am. But I don't know you…how about introductions…you know we're in Jolly Old Britain, home of the overly polite."

"But you're American, Agent Prentiss. But we'll play your game, I like to play games anyways while we wait for…it doesn't matter." She hesitated as she glanced at someone behind Emily. "I'm Elizabeta. And my friend over there is Oleg but I'm sure you've heard about us."

Emily nodded as Oleg moved into her vision on her right. Oleg had short dark hair as well but his demeanor was anything but pleasant. No, he exuded evil, Emily could sense he enjoyed pain; he was wearing a dark jacket but his neck was exposed and it was marked with the typical Russian prison tattoos; this was Lucas' prison guard and he was the one responsible for marking him as well.

Two other men with heavy beards were standing on either side of Emily.

Glancing over to Elizabeta, Emily saw that she had dark hair and cold features; she wondered what Lucas saw in her, there was no warm or humor in her eyes, it was as if she had no feelings, no emotions within. Emily felt a cold shiver running through her spine.

"Nice to meet you folks," Emily nodded at them. "How's the weather out there?"

Elizabeta exchanged confused looks with Oleg and looked back at Emily, "You Americans are strange people, always talking about the weather. I don't see what's so special about the weather. It's always so dreary here in London. I absolutely hate it here." She sneered at it.

Oleg glanced at his watch and spoke in Russian to Elizabeta, "I'm off to meet with your father at the Station with him. You're meeting with that Yank bitch?"

Emily jerked her chin up as she was tied up, "Your father, Arcady Kachimov…wasn't he imprisoned in here for a while?"

Elizabeta looked at Emily angrily, "Do not talk about Papa!" She walked over and slapped Emily hard.

But Emily grinned, "Aw, guess I hit a nerve with dear ol' Daddy. He must be some great man in your heart, Elizabeta."

"What are you talking about!"

"I'm just saying, he's training you to take over his little empire and what about the son-in-law? What's his place in the family business?" She looked over at Oleg.

"Don't listen to the bitch, Elizabeta. She is lying!" He looked over to his men and said in Russian, "Give her something she'd remember!"

The two men began to hit and punched Emily in the face and upper body until they knocked her out of the chair.

"Enough!" Elizabeta exclaimed to them in Russian as they put her back on the chair. Her phone rang and she was looking at it.

Elizabeta nodded, "My contact will be here in two hours, I sent her a reply, she will be meeting us when she clears customs."

Oleg nodded, "She better deliver the money or she won't leave this country."

Elizabeta waved him off, "Just go, Oleg, I'll handle it from here."

He came over and kissed her roughly, "Remember who is in charge, my dear."

Elizabeta frowned for a moment and then relaxed and looked at him and smiled coldly, "I have not forgotten, my husband."

He smiled at her lovingly as he stroked her cheek softly, "Soon we'll get out of this godforsaken place and get back to the Motherland and live together as man and wife."

She placed her hand on his chest, "All in due time, Oleg. Now take Lucenchk and go meet Papa."

Oleg frowned, "Don't call him that! He is not yours anymore!" He turned to look at Emily and grinned. "This bitch here is fucking him now, maybe we should bring him out and let her see him one last time."

Elizabeta turned to look at Emily as well, "Yes, she may cry over him and all that, Oleg you're being sentimental. Fine, we'll give them their final moments together." She waved her hand while keeping the other one holding the gun still pointing at Emily.

Oleg laughed, "Why are you still pointing the gun at her? You've got her tied down, she's not going anywhere."

Elizabeta glared at her husband, "You forget, she's FBI agent, I don't trust these foreign government agents."

Oleg shrugged, "Ah well, time's wasting…I'll be back." He left.

Elizabeta walked slowly, never taking her eyes off Emily as she switched to English, "We have a little surprise for you Agent Prentiss. To tell the truth, you shouldn't have trusted him, he is actually working for the Russians, for us…but he is what he is, a traitor. He'll even betray you." She looked up and watched Oleg and Lucas walked out to them.

Lucas, his shirt still unbuttoned, looked slightly groggy as he was led by Oleg and was now standing in front of Emily.

Lucas frowned as he eyed Emily who was bruised; one of her eyes was beginning to swell and darken, her cheek was swollen. Her lip was cut and bleeding, blood was dripping down her chin.

Lucas sneered at her, "Who did this to her?"

"Ivan and Gregoriah over here, she was being a little … mouthy." Oleg said.

Lucas looked up at the two men, "Good work men." He smiled at them. They returned his smile and nodded.

Emily frowned at him, "Lucas…What is going on…I…?"

He looked back at her, "What Emily?" He knelt in front of her, "Just because we had a great fuck, doesn't mean we're engaged and all." He reached out and stroked her lower jaw and suddenly gripped her neck roughly, and continued, "Don't read too much into our relationship, my dear. It was great while it lasted, you were a fantastic lay, I enjoyed every moment you gave me." He leaned in and kissed her roughly and trailed his kisses up to her ear and then he pushed her away and stood up.

"Why did you bring her here?" Lucas demanded in Russian. "She will ruin our plans."

Oleg grinned, "Oh, we'll finish her, don't worry. I won't forget she is the one responsible for fucking up our plans in Syria."

Lucas looked at Elizabeta, "See that you do, Elizabeta. Let's go Oleg." Lucas began to walk away as Oleg followed him.

Oleg chuckled, "I love it, he is so fucking eager, come on boys." The two men began to move.

Oleg turned around to Elizabeta, "Don't forget to clean the mess, darling! And deliver that package."

His wife waved at him, "Go, go…I'll take care of this…little house keeping…" She turned to face Emily with a grin. Changing back to speaking in English, "And I'll enjoy mopping up for once."

Emily's head was down, she was crying.

Elizabeta was shaking her head, "Aw, don't cry, Agent Prentiss. Lucas is simply not worth it. I was briefly married to him too. I loved him for just a little bit, he was a wonderful man, very…how do you say it in English… ah yes…passionate."

"Wha…?"Emily whispered

Elizabeta moved closer to Emily and repeated, "He is very passionate in bed, no?"

Emily nodded sadly as tears continued to flow, "I thought he was the one…"

Elizabeta laughed, "Ah men, they will certainly break your heart easily. Look at my husband, Oleg…all those years he worked in prison and all the sacrifices I made for him," she looked out in the distance but shook her head and looked back at Emily, "Don't pity them. Men are all alike. They don't respect women. They think they are smarter than us."

"But I can't believe he lied to me." Emily looked away sadly.

Elizabeta came closer and held Emily's chin and turned to face her, "Listen, you're not the only one Lucas had professed his love for, there was another one…her name was…Maya…it was a long time ago. His first love. You know what they say about first love? It matters a lot to a man. Get over him. Lucas is a piece of shit. He is not worth it. Oh, he is good while it lasted, he was a good …" she frowned as she couldn't get the word.

"You are thinking of lynbovnik? Lover?" Emily said.

Elizabeta paled as she stared at her, "You can speak Russian?"

"Speak, read, and write." She said to her in Russian as she reared back and banged her head against Elizabeta's forehead, knocking her off her balance as she fell back a few feet and dropping her gun at the same time.

Emily stood as much as she could with the chair still bound to her back while Elizabeta was trying to get her bearings, the knock on her head had made her dizzy.

Speaking in Russian, Emily grinned, "Feeling okay, Elizabeta? Did I hit you too hard?"

Emily fell to the floor, grunted hard on impact as the metal chair dug into her back but she absorbed the pain as she grabbed the gun in time as Elizabeta had gotten up and was rushing after her.

Emily fired three shots and Elizabeta fell right on top of her. "Stay down, you dumb Russian bitch!"

"OOF!" She grunted more as her impact made the chair hurt even harder as well as her face,

"This is just great! …Should have laid off the pastries and the _pirogis,_they're a killer for your hips Elizabeta!" She tried to move around the dead body as best she could while still bound to the chair. "They never teach you how to get out of a jam like this in training. Memo to self" Emily muttered as she struggled and wriggled herself out of the ropes they had tied her body to the chair. "Put this into exercises; how to get out, when you're bound. Give subjects different scenarios." She looked about her and saw she was definitely alone and began to shimmy out of her sweat pants and fell off the chair completely. "Not bad, Prentiss. But I'm not doing this in front of the guys during training though." She stood up in her sweats and panties and bare feet and began to giggle.

"Boy, if they could see me now, I guess I better get my sweats back on."Not an easy thing to do when your hands are still tied together.

It took her more than ten minutes to put back her sweat pants on as she began to look about the ware house for a cutter.

"Oh, for heavens' sake! Is this not a ware house?" She said angrily as she was looking in the small room and saw something in a corner…a knife!

She recognized the knife; it was Lucas'! He must have been here all this time.

Grabbing it she began to cut the twist tie, dropping it a couple of times but soon she was free.

Pocketing the knife in her sweatpants, she moved out again and went over to the body of Elizabeta and searched her body and found her cell phone and also the gun.

Emily remembered Elizabeta had said her contact would be here soon…

"Elizabeta?"

Emily whipped her head and saw Beth Clemmons standing before her.

.

…

End of Chapter 25


	26. Chapter 26

**Thank you Beta Magpie of Silver! you are great!**

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**Thank you to all who reviewed and put this story on alert!**

**.**

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 26

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"Elizabeta?"

Emily whipped her head and saw Beth Clemmons standing before her.

"No," Emily replied. "I'm about to be your worst nightmare, Beth…or is it Olga?"

Beth hesitated a bit, "Wh… what did you call me?"

Emily turned to face her, "Isn't that your real name? Olga Volkov?"

Beth shook her head, "No, I think you've mistaken me with someone else, Emily."

"I don't think so. Give it up. You were born in Omsk, Russia. You're not an American."

"I _am_ an American." She said firmly. "I am not from Russia, I don't know where you got this crazy information, Emily but I think you're having a nervous breakdown."

Emily grinned, "I'm fine, Beth or Olga or whatever the hell your real name is."

"I told Aaron you're not stable, and he believed me," Beth smiled. "He should have put you in a proper hospital, that would have ended your career, wouldn't it? Pity."

"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Emily said. "But unfortunately, Hotch does not _listen_ to everything you say."

"Oh, he does, he is such a soft hearted man and so easily manipulated. In fact, he is about to put Jack in boarding school so he's out of our way as soon as we're married and when our baby arrives."

"Baby?" Emily frowned.

"Didn't he tell you the good news, Emily? I'm pregnant, we're going to be a family."

"Beth, you're fifty years old, you can't be pregnant."

"In Vitro Fertilization, I'd done it while I was in New York a few weeks ago." She explained. "But why am I telling you this? Aaron doesn't need to know this, he's happy and I'm marrying him soon."

"Who's the sperm donor?" Emily asked.

She shrugged, "I don't know, some schmuck at the clinic but I made sure he's dark haired, that's all it counts."

Suddenly, a new voice came out of the corner, "Some schmuck? Am I one of your schmucks too, Beth?"

She turned around and paled.

"Aaron! Wh… what are you doing here? I thought you were at the hotel?"

He held out his cell phone, "My phone, you put a block on Emily's name, didn't you?"

Beth shook her head, "Aaron…how could you accuse me?" She began to shed some tears and walked to him but Hotch stopped her.

"Don't, Beth. I know everything. INTERPOL told me about it."

Emily turned to him, "They did?"

He looked at her and nodded, "I called Easter and he told me all of it."

She nodded, "Glad to see you back in the game, Aaron."

He smiled at Emily, "Me too." Then he turned back to Beth.

"Beth, let's go."

She frowned at them, "No…Aaron! You can't believe what she said! She's lying to you! I love you, don't you see! We're going to be a family!"

Hotch shook his head, "I'm sorry Beth, it's over between us."

Beth began to get angry as she growled and turned to look at Emily, "YOU! You are always in the way! You have ruined everything for Aaron and me!"

"No Beth," Emily said. "You've got it all wrong. Aaron did love you but you blew it, honey."

"NO! NO! NO!" Beth began to rush towards Emily "Aaron is still mine!"

Emily raised the gun and shot her once.

Beth crumpled onto the floor.

Hotch rushed to her and turned her over, "She's still alive…call for medical help."

Emily nodded and using Elizabeta's cell phone, she dialed for medical emergency transportation as well as the police.

"They'll be here in fifteen minutes, Hot…Aaron." She smiled at him.

Hotch returned her smile and then frowned as he assessed her face, "Looks like they did a good job on your pretty face, Emily."

She blushed but winced at the pain on her cheek. "How bad is she?"

Hotch removed his hand, "The bleeding is minimal, you shot her on her right shoulder, I think she'll be fine."

"She's pregnant?"

He nodded, "Yes."

"You know it's not yours, Aaron?"

"I had a feeling, the timing wasn't right." He looked at Emily, "Remember I have Jack?"

She smiled, "Yeah…where is he?"

"A friend of his had Chicken Pox, so he couldn't make it."

"Thank goodness for childhood disease! For once it just might have saved him." Emily said.

"Me too." They looked up when they heard sirens blaring.

While the medical personnel attended to Beth, Emily spoke to the police and told them about her involvement with the Russians. She had also gotten on the phone with Clyde Easter for confirmation with the police.

"Make sure she is under watch at all times." Emily pointed out to the police chief.

He nodded his assurance before they drove off.

"Where to, Emily?" Hotch offered.

"To the museum, well, actually the back of the dock. You can meet my team." She grinned.

He nodded and they left the warehouse.

….

As soon as they entered the back of the Museum, Emily saw her team who rushed to her.

"Hot diggity dog! Emily, who did this shit to you?" Sam jerked his chin at her.

"Gor Emily! You look like some abused victim, shit! I'd love to give a little lickin' to the fella that did that to you!" Bob nodded.

"That bastard is very dead, Emily! Oh, he does not know who he is dealing with, shit! Fuckers laying a hand on our Emily, Godamnit!" Frankie cussed as he almost slammed his fist on a crate before he remembered where he was.

Hotch leaned close to Emily and whispered to her, "They're very protective of you, aren't they? I take it they're your team members?"

She turned to look at him and nodded.

"Guys, cool it, I'm fine. It looks worse than it feels. Hey, meet my former boss, Aaron Hotchner, or Hotch."

They all shook his hands and greeted him warmly but Sam was watching him closely.

"Emily, isn't he with Beth Clemmons?" Sam frowned.

Emily nodded and quickly briefed them on the latest.

"So she is still alive?" Bob commented.

"Unfortunately yes, but International Police will be by shortly to escort her to France to face multiple charges. And IP have just informed me that Beth Clemmons or Olga Volkov has been a really bad girl." Emily told Hotch and her team. "She had been involved in multiple stolen arts all over the world and the black market world is going to miss her very much."

Her team grinned as they high-fived each other.

She nodded, "Yeah, good job guys." She high-fived them as well.

She looked at the crates, "Are these the crates?"

They nodded, "Yes but we don't know which ones are the jars containing plutonium."

"Let's open them." She looked at them.

Her team members gotten some crow bars and began to open the crates and removed the straw coverings.

"So Emily, what now? I'm not breaking any of these jars." Bob began to step back.

Emily walked to Bob and looked into it and shook her head and went to the next one. Hotch was following her.

"What are you looking for, Emily?"

"Plutonium."

He stopped following her, "Say that again?"

She stopped looking and looked up at him, "Five sealed Gzhel jars containing plutonium. Beth and her father found them eight years ago and decided to sell it to the highest bidder. Daddy cracked opened one of the jar to show it to a seller but he was exposed to it before he realized what was happening. The buyer also died of cancer later but Beth's father managed to get another one before he was diagnosed with cancer too."

Hotch nodded, "She told me he died last year."

Emily nodded as she began to look again, "They sealed the jar again so the exposure is zilch now. They tested it on the Geiger meter. No radiation leaks so far, that's why they waited until now to ship it."

"You do know she is bare footed." Frankie was whispering to Waltie as they were standing watching her.

"Idiot, she was taken out of her flat by the Russians, remember? I wouldn't have my shoes on at my own home." Bob smacked the back of Frankie's head.

"Ow! I was just saying…I mean she painted her toe nails red and it looked hot on her."

The guys began to glance at her feet.

Emily felt her team staring down at her feet, looked at them.

"What the hell are you guys doing?"

They all looked up at her guiltily, "Nothing," Bob said, his face was the reddest.

Emily gave him a wry look, "Bob, I know a guilty look when I see it, and yours is the guiltiest. Cough it up guys. Don't make me embarrass you all in front of the FBI number one profiler." She indicated Hotch.

"Frankie said you have pretty toe nails." Waltie owned up quickly.

Emily began to laugh as Hotch shook his head, his dimples deepening. "She does have nice toe nails for a feeb."

The INTERPOL team stared at Hotch and chuckled, "Yankee Feeb has a sense of humor, like that a lot."

Emily blushed as she looked at Hotch, "Yeah, I didn't know you had a sense of humor either."

"There's a lot you don't know about me," he said softly to her.

She arched an elegant brow at him.

Her team exchanged puzzled looks as Hotch and Emily grinned at each other.

After a moment, she straightened and continued looking for the crate and finally found it.

"Okay, this is the one, don't do anything to it. Let's call the Nuclear Disposable Institution, Fanta."

The young man nodded and got on his phone immediately.

Hotch watched Fanta, "Isn't he a little young…too young for the job?"

"Aaron! He's my tech analysis. And he's 18. Smart kid too."

"Smarter than Reid?"

She nodded, "Two points smarter."

"Don't tell him that, might bruise his fragile ego."

Emily giggled, "Too late…told him that last night."

"You talk to Reid last night?" Hotch looked surprised.

She nodded, "The whole team, they were at Rossi's."

"Ah yes, he was taking them on a boat ride."

"Did you know it's not a boat?"

Hotch frowned, "What do you mean?"

"It's a 100 ft yacht, comes with a captain and crew."

Hotch whistled, "He must have published his fourth book."

"Must have, and made an advancement on those darn books of his."

"Emily!" She looked up at Sam. "It's Harry Pearce." He handed her his cell phone.

"That didn't take long." She said.

"Harry! Did you miss me?" She greeted him.

"_Where is Lucas?"_ Harry demanded.

"On their way to Paddington Station." She replied.

"_Are you sure? How do you know?"_

"He told me himself. Oleg is with him."

"_Arcady has orders to silence him and he has three biological/chemical pods with him."_ Harry said.

Emily paled, "Shit, Harry…can anyone disarm it?"

"_Lucas is the only one now who knows the code, I hope he remembers the bloody code."_

"What do you mean he is the only one now?" Emily frowned.

"_It was Connie James, she's dead. Arcady took care of her."_

"I have to warn him, Harry." She said.

"_When are they planning to be there?"_

"Tomorrow noon," she told him.

"_Shit, right at rush hour."_

"I know, Harry." She said.

"_Where are they coming from?"_

"I don't know, he couldn't tell me," she said, thinking of the hurried whisper he held in her ear before he left the warehouse earlier.

She unconsciously rubbed her neck where he had also grabbed her.

"_Damn!"_ He cussed again. Then Emily heard some background talking and Harry replied, "_I'm well aware of it Ruth…thank you for pointing it out."_ He said sourly.

"How's Ruth?" Emily grinned.

"_Mind your damn business, Prentiss!"_

Emily laughed.

"_All right, Paddington Station tomorrow 10 am. Ros and Dimitri will be there."_

"My team will be there too." Emily said.

"_That's fine."_ And with that, he was gone

Emily pressed 'End' and dialed Clyde's number next.

"_Where the bloody hell are you at?"_ Clyde's irritable voice came on the line.

Emily smiled, "Oh dear, don't tell me you haven't taken care of your _little_ problem?"

"_Yes I have and she has the largest fucking set of tits. Now, what's going?"_

Emily blushed and laughed, "This is not a secure phone, Clyde."

"_Em, I don't give a fuck right now and I don't have the patience. I have been worried sick about you."_

"I'm fine, Clyde. Nice to know you care about me. Look, Lucas told me it's going to be at Paddington Station. Harry says Arcady has 3 biological chemical pods and it's to be armed with a nuclear armament. Lucas is going to arm it and send to Russia. He's the only one with the code."

Clyde was quiet for a while before he spoke. _"Your choice of boyfriend sucks, you know."_

She grinned, "I know but if not for him, we wouldn't flush Arcady out."

"_All right, I'll give you guys that, INTERPOL's been hunting the sonofabitch down for a while since the Brits released him to dear ol' mother Russia."_

"Arcady has painted a bulls' eye on Lucas as soon as he armed the armament."

"_You don't say. Don't tell me you're going to be there tomorrow to warn your boyfriend."_

"Clyde, you know I have to be there."

"_Ah shit, Emily. It's too dangerous. Harry's gang are handle it, let them do their jobs."_

Emily shook her head, "Sorry Clyde, I'm taking my team and I'm going to try and get to Lucas."

"_Damn it Emily! Why can't you stop playing the fucking hero for once! Let the big boys to their job, shit!"_

She chuckled, "Well, I'm one of the big boys now. You made me one of them."

"_Fine! Go get fucking blown up! See if I fucking care!"_

"Clyde, you do care. Admit it, darling." She tried to soothe him.

Clyde was quiet for a moment and then he said in a calm and soft tone, _"Emily, be safe out there babe, you know you mean the world to me."_

Emily teared up, "I will Clyde, you piece of shit, don't go soft and sentimental on me right now."

He chuckled before he ended the phone call.

Emily put the phone away and wiped her eyes.

"Everything all right, Emily?" Hotch watched her closely.

She looked up at him and nodded, "Clyde says hey to you."

He nodded.

She walked to her team, "Okay guys, we're standing down for the night but we're meeting at Paddington Station tomorrow at 0900hrs. We're extracting Lucas North."

Sam raised his brow.

She continued, "He's considered a dangerous target. He will be arming a nuclear bomb."

The guys shook their heads, "How do you want us to take him?"

She looked at Sam who asked the question, "You won't, I will."

Sam shook his head, "Oh no you won't, Emily. It's too dangerous."

"Sam, it's not your decision, and it's not up for discussion or debate."

"This is bullshit, Emily!" Bob said angrily.

"I agree." Hotch said.

She turned to him, "I don't recall asking for your opinion, Agent Hotchner."

She looked over at Fanta, "Fanta, I want blueprints of the station by tomorrow."

He nodded, "You'll have it, boss."

"All right, I'll see you guys in the morning. Good night."

"Good night Emily!" They all waved at her and headed to the van.

"I'll drop you off at your apartment?" Hotch offered.

She nodded, "Thanks, you want to get a bite? I'm hungry, I haven't eaten in days…I think."

Hotch grinned and tossed her the car keys, "Since I'm not familiar with this place, I'll let you decide."

She returned his smile, "Deal," She looked at her bare feet. "We'll eat at my place, I don't think restaurants will let me in like this and with my face, definitely will scare them all."

"Okay, your place it is."

Later, at her apartment Emily let Hotch into the room with their dinner.

Her cat, Sergio began sniffing Hotch and went to Emily and rubbed against their dinner packages.

Emily laughed, "Hello, handsome. Is someone hungry for Chinese food too? You little scavenger?"

Hotch looked down at her cat and said, "So this is the one and only Sergio I've heard about." He bent down to pat him who arched his back and purred loudly.

"Nice and friendly." He commented as he grinned at her.

"That he is," she smiled as she noticed Hotch's dimples deepening. _Very nice!_

She moved to the kitchen and grabbed some plates and cutleries and began dishing out dinner.

They sat down and ate companionably while catching up on their lives. Hotch talked more about Jack while Emily talked about her team.

"So what's this Beth was talking about sending Jack to boarding school?" Emily asked.

Hotch looked up from his glass of wine, "I don't remember talking to her about it."

She shrugged, "She must have made it up."

"Apparently. Emily," He paused.

"Yeah, Aaron?"

"I…want to…"they were interrupted by his cell phone buzzing. Hotch looked at her apologetically.

Emily shook her head, "Go ahead."

"It's Jessica."

Emily nodded and smiled.

"Jessica, is everything all right?"

"_Hey Aaron! Yes! How are you?"_

"I'm fine, how's Jack? Does he have the Chicken Pox?"

"_Can you believe he doesn't have it? Did you give him the vaccine shot?"_ She asked him

"I might have, I don't recall."

"_Well, he is not getting the Chicken Pox after all."_ Jessica laughed.

"I'm glad, Jess. Is he around?"

"_No, he's still at Jason's. I thought I'd call you and give you the news. How's London? How's... Beth?"_

"She is fine. London is interesting so far," he smiled at Emily.

"_Oh…okay. Well, I guess I'll let you have your fun Aaron, bye!"_

"Bye Jess. Thanks for keeping an eye on Jack." Hotch said.

"_Not a problem Aaron."_

Hotch ended the call and told Emily about Jack.

She laughed, "Seriously? No chicken pox?"

He shook his head, "I guess not, I must have taken him to get a vaccine shot at one time."

"Busy father." Emily commented softly.

He looked at her, noticing her change in her voice and remembered what he wanted to say to her.

"Emily, I want us to be friends again." He began.

Emily stood up from the kitchen stool and walked to the living room couch and invited him over.

He nodded and came over to sit next to her.

"You are my friend, Aaron."

He shook his head, "You know what I'm talking about, Em." He picked up her hand and held it. "I want us to be more than friends, what are my chances?"

Emily squeezed his hand gently, "Aaron, you do realize you live in Virginia and I'm here in London, quite a few thousand miles apart. And statistics wise, Reid can tell you about it, long distance relationship are hard and 90 percent it won't last."

Hotch shook his head, "I'll take the 10 percent that last. Say you'll try it, Em."

Emily thought hard.

"It's Lucas North, isn't it?"

She nodded.

Hotch released her hand, "I understand, Emily." He stood up. "I should get back to the hotel."

Emily stood up as well.

Hotch turned to face her, "You know, you're right, and Dave too."

"What are you saying Aaron?"

"That I'm a coward."

Emily frowned, "I don't understand, Aaron?"

"I knew about your feelings for me for a long time and…I feel the same thing for you too." He admitted to her finally.

"Aaron?" She smiled slowly. "You did? All that time? When?"

He looked at her, "Would you believe it was when we were on the case of the serial arsonist? We had to do surveillance all night, just you and I. And we talked all night about everything and nothing. It was quite an interesting night, together with stale coffee. "

She grinned fully, "Oh my god! I can't believe it because that's about the same time I…I began to have feelings for you too!" She laughed and added. "Oh yes, I remembered that night, and I had to pee so badly and there was no where to go!"

"Me too! At least I could go outside and relieve myself if I wanted to but I didn't because it was not fair for you."

She laughed, "So you held your bladder for me?"

He nodded.

"Aw, you're too sweet!"

"I thought so too!"

He smiled at her, his dimples were fully depressed into his cheeks, Emily was blushing deeply as they stood face to face.

And like magnets, they began to lean towards each other and kissed.

Hotch put his hands out and held Emily closed to him as Emily raised her hands up and wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled him closer to her as she opened her mouth and let his tongue slid into hers….

.

…..

End of Chapter 26


	27. Chapter 27

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 27

.

.

Hotch put his hands out and held Emily close to him as Emily raised her hands up and wrapped her hands around his neck, she pulled him closer to her as she opened her mouth and let his tongue slid into hers….

And they stopped and pulled apart at the same time and stared at each other for some time.

"Something is not right." Hotch said.

Emily shook her head, "Yeah, what happened, Aaron?"

"I don't know, Emily." He dragged his hand through his hair and looked at her, "I'm sorry, Em but it feels like I'm kissing my …"

"…friend?" Emily finished his sentence.

He nodded as he glanced down. "What the hell happened?"

She shrugged, "We grew out of it?"

He looked up at her, "You think so?" Then he nodded at his own question. "Yeah, I think you're right. Are you okay? I mean, with you and I?"

She nodded and jerked her chin to the couch, "Come sit down for a bit."

He nodded and sat next to her.

"Aaron, you and I have changed within the last couple of weeks. I know it sounds weird but it's there." She spread her hands out. "I don't know how that could be but I think we're going to be okay, are we?"

Hotch thought for a moment before he nodded, "Yeah, I think we'll be. I still want us to stay as friends, is that possible?"

She leaned in to him and nodded, "Yes, I'd like that very much, thanks."

He put his hand around her shoulder and pulled her close to him. "Friends?"

She smiled, "Best friends."

He nodded.

They stay close together for a long while before Emily's cell phone buzzed.

Pulling away reluctantly from Hotch's warm body, Emily went to the kitchen to answer her phone.

"Prentiss."

"_Emily! It's Sarah, Frankie's having the baby! I mean…it's Frankie, Sarah is having the baby! Emily, what should I do?"_ He was practically panicking.

Emily laughed, "Frankie, first of all, take a deep breath," she breathed in and out with him. "There, feel better?"

"_Yeah, but what do I do with Sarah?"_

"Okay, are you at home?"She asked him.

"_Yeah, oh yeah, Emily she's having a baby! Sarah…Emily says breathe, sweetheart!"_Frankie called through to the next room_"Breathe! Mum, please stop yelling, I can't hear Emily…she's my boss."_

"Frankie, you need to take her to the hospital, get in the car now!" She said as she looked over to Hotch who was grinning, he came over and stood beside her and mouthed silently; _first time father?_

She nodded.

"_Okay, I'm in the car, Em. Now what?"_

She shook her head, "Now you drive to the hospital."

"_O…okay, Em…driving away…Em?"_

"Yes, Frankie?"

"_Er…what should I do with Sarah?"_

"What do you mean?" Emily frowned.

"_I mean she er she's still at home."_

Emily smacked her forehead with her palm, "Frankie, I don't believe you did that, drive back to your house, you idiot!"

"_Okay, why?"_

"Because, idiot, you need to put Sarah in the car and drive her to the hospital!"

Hotch was laughing besides her, Emily smacked his arm, and whispered, _not funny_, to him.

"Frankie, where's your mum and mum-in-law?"

"_Oh, they're with Sarah, and they're yelling at me right now, do I have to take them too?"_

"Not if you don't want to."

Emily frowned as she heard a lot of yelling in the background in the phone.

"_Emily, I don't think it's a good idea…"_

"Frankie, put your mother on the phone."

"_Hello? Who's this? Is this Michael's boss? Look, I don't have time, my daughter-in-law is about to hav…"_

"LISTEN UP MRS. FREEMAN! AND YOU LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW, Michael and Sarah are having their baby. You and Mrs. Thompson will step back and step away from them right this moment. You two ladies will stay out of their way right now and don't you dare interfere with your son and your daughter-in-law's birth. Do I make myself clear?" Hotch's eye were wide as saucers. "Or I will personally remove you two from the hospital and prevent you from seeing your grandbaby's birth, do I make myself clear?"

A small timid voice replied, "_Yes ma'am_."

"Now, if you'll make sure Michael and Sarah get to the hospital right now and act like the jolliest grandmothers like you should be."

"_Yes, ma'am_." The timid replied again.

"May I talk to your son again, Mrs. Freeman?" Emily said. Hotch tapped her shoulder and gave her thumbs up and grinned.

Emily shook her head as she pushed him away.

"_Emily? What did you do to my mum?"_

"Is she okay?"

"_Oh heck yeah but I have never seen her looked so bloody stunned, that's a first for her. I think she's scared of you, and she's never scared of anyone in her life. Thanks Emily."_

"Don't mention it, now get to the hospital…with Sarah in the car, my friend."

He chuckled, sounding calmer. "_Yes ma'am, heading that way. I'll keep you posted. Hey boss, thanks."_

"Get going before she has the baby in the car. Good luck, Daddy." Emily ended the call.

She called Sam and told him of Frankie and Sarah.

"_So we'll be one man short."_

"We'll make it, Sam

Hotch waved at Emily and pointed at himself.

Emily grinned, "Sam, I think we have a new player."

"_Who is it?"_

"My former boss, Hotch. He used to be in the SWAT team. Will he do?"

_"Hell yeah. He's in."_

"Okay, I'll brief him in. I'll see you guys in the morning."

_"Okay, night Emily."_

"Night, Sam."

She looked at Hotch, "Okay, Aaron…but you play by my rules, are you okay with it?" She grinned.

Hotch leaned in, "Whatever you say…boss."

"Oh…this is going to be very, very interesting."

…..

Hotch left Emily's apartment late that evening but he came back with his luggage and spent the night in the guest room.

The next morning, they were up very early; neither slept much at all as they each had much on their minds; Hotch missed Jack, Emily was worried about the mission and Lucas, and his state of mind. She wondered if his Stockholm syndrome had fully developed and he really believed himself sympathetic to Oleg's plight and wanted to help him fight for Russia.

Her plan was simple but complex; to extract him from Oleg and hopefully clean his mind from Oleg's influence completely.

But first, his life was in danger; Arcady Kachimov's order to kill him once the bomb was armed. And the train…where was the train going to be once it left Paddington Station? It had to be somewhere big. Kachimov was known to show off, so why the Plutonium buyer? He knew the chances the plan could fail, what would be his backup plan? Everyone has a backup plan.

_Damn you Lucas!_ Emily thought angrily. _Clyde was right,_ _why couldn't I be less complicated? And what the hell happened with Aaron?_

The kiss was so off! Emily shook her head; _that was twice he kissed me, and I didn't feel anything! No Pow! No fireworks!Talk about being screwed big time, and I waited seven years for this!_

He was not the one, after all; he was not her knight in the shining armor…nor her Prince Charming.

Speaking of Prince Charming…her Lucky Charm, Lucas. She remembered his kisses and they were explosives! Could _he_ be the one?

She couldn't help as a warm smile spread across her face as his face came to her mind, as well as tears forming in her eyes.

A light knock on her bedroom door, "Emily?"

She sat up, "Yeah Hotch?"

"May I come in?"

"Yeah,"

He opened the door and she beckoned him to her bed, "I couldn't sleep,"

"Me neither." She admitted.

He sat on the edge as he noticed her eyes, "You've been crying?"

She shrugged.

He leaned over and grabbed her hand, "He's going to be okay, Em."

She nodded as more tears flowed.

Hotch went into her bathroom and found a washcloth and wet it and came back and gently wiped her face. "Hey, beautiful, you'll be okay. He knows you've got his back." He patted her leg.

She nodded as her phone buzzed, it was receiving a picture. When it came through it was with a message text, Emily smiled and cried more as she read it and showed it to Hotch.

He grinned as he looked at it and read the text; It was from Frankie, it was a picture of his newly born baby girl they had named MacKenzie Emily Michelle Freeman. The text was actually from his mother, she wanted Emily to be her new granddaughter's God mother! Both grandmothers had insisted on it. Emily laughed and cried at the same time. She texted back to Frankie that it would be her honor to accept it and congratulated the new parents and grandparents.

Hotch reached up and wiped her tears and gathered her into his arms and hugged her tight, "Hey, godmother, you're tough as a nail. I've seen you getting your shit beaten and you've pulled through all right. And you know what? You're going to do just great in this mission, just like you did in the others."

She nodded in his neck. "I know, I'm just afraid for everyone and Lucas."

He pulled her away so he could look at her, "Emily Prentiss, I have never seen you wimp out like this, and I'm not going to stand for this. You're the leader of this ass-kicking outfit and I'm very impressed with it…no, I'm more than impressed with your team. Part of me is very envious of you."

She smiled, "I have to confess, JJ, Alex and Garcia wanted to transfer to my unit."

He frowned, "They do?"

She nodded, "But that's because they were just lusting after the muscles of my men."

"Even Alex?"

"She was the first one to ask." Emily grinned.

"I think it's time my team and I are long overdue for a talk." He said as he moved to sit beside her on her bed against the bed frame.

"Don't be too harsh on them, they were drooling, after all and if you were to show off some of your pecs more often, maybe they wouldn't ask to transfer out so often." She poked at his biceps for emphasis.

Hotch sighed, "Women." He shouldered her away playfully.

She giggled as she leaned over his shoulder, he leaned over her head.

"This is nice," he remarked.

She nodded, "We should have done this a long time ago."

"Yeah, I was such a fool."

"Yes, you were, Aaron." She took his hand and held it. "You had been such a stiff ass."

He arched a brow but she couldn't see it, "Prentiss…"

She chuckled, "You know, Hotch…I did miss you calling me that. For so long, you never call me Emily, it was always Prentiss. Why is that? You call JJ, not Jareau, and well Pen, Garcia but that was different."

He straightened his head, "Emily, your name makes me feel so intimate at the time, I can't call you that and try to concentrate with my work, you were a distraction to me constantly."

She laughed, "I was?"

He nodded, "It got really so bad at one point, I had to get Morgan to go with you on the field all the time."

"So that's why…I thought I had done something wrong and that you didn't want me to be your partner anymore. I was feeling so damn hurt at that time."

"I know, Em, I'm sorry." He looked down.

She shrugged, "Ah well. Those were the days."

He nodded, "I have to confess, there were so many times, I wanted to say, to hell with policies and fraternization rules and take you to the nearest hotel and ….you know…" He turned to look at her with an arched look.

"Oh!" Emily looked back with wide eyes, "And I would go with you willingly."

"I know and be damned with the consequences."

She nodded.

"Are you glad we didn't?" She asked after she'd recovered.

He shrugged, "I don't know, and would never know, I mean would we be still sitting here talking like this, like friends?"

"Probably not; consequences."

He nodded "Yup."

"Maybe it was for the best."

He nodded. "I like this better, what we are right now."

"Me too."

They were quiet for a while when his phone buzzed; it was from Jessica she had sent a picture of Jack and his friend Jason who was marked with chicken pox.

They laughed together at the picture with a caption from Jessica expressing Jack was still pox-free!

"How's Jessica?" Emily asked.

"Jess? She is doing great, she is working real estate from home, which works great with Jack, he simply adores her. You know I dated her before I dated and married Haley?" he revealed.

Emily turned to look at him, "Really? I didn't know that? So, sisters huh?"

He blushed and nodded, "Jess and I were in high school together and we met in tenth grade, we went out a couple of times and later I met Haley. I thought, stupidly…Haley was prettier and asked Jess for an introduction when we were in college…and the rest, you can say was history."

Emily nodded sadly.

"You should pursue her again."

"What?" He said.

"Go ask Jessica out again."

He shook his head, "I don't think so, I mean I don't know how she feels about me now."

"Aaron, why do you think she's not married yet? Certainly not for Jack."

Hotch thought for a while and recalled the kiss she gave him, even though it was on his cheek but all the same…

Emily laughed, "I can see the cogs spinning in your head." She tapped his head for emphasis.

He grinned. "You mean cogs turning? I think London air has influenced you but you might have something there, Prentiss." He tapped her nose playfully.

"I know I do, Hotch, and," she began to get out of bed. "We need to get ready if we want to make it to the station on time, Hotch."

"Yes, boss." He got out of bed, too.

Sergio, who had been lying at the foot of the bed stretched long and yawned hard before he looked at the his owner and the male and rolled over, licked his fur a bit and promptly fell back asleep; _humans!_

Hotch grabbed Emily, "Hey, I'm glad we had this moment," he smiled softly.

Emily hugged him tightly, "Me too Aaron, I'm glad we did too." She kissed him on his lips.

He grinned, "Just don't let your boyfriend see it, or we might come to blows."

"My boyfriend is not that terribly jealous."

"If I was your boyfriend, I'd be. Now, go get your shower, you stink and you look awful!" He smacked her butt hard

"Hey! Don't make me sic my boyfriend on you, Hotchner!" She rubbed her bottom as she grinned. "I thought you said I'm beautiful?"

He grinned, "You _are_ beautiful but not at the moment, you really look like shit."

"You know, I've hardly ever heard you cussed, Aaron." She was near her bathroom.

He grinned, "I told you there's a lot about me you don't know. Now get to cleaning or I'm going to join you in there! And your boyfriend won't appreciate that."

"I'm going, I'm going…just give me twenty minutes!" She giggled as she closed the door. "Really Aaron! I have never seen this side of you before? You need to come out and play more often." Emily yelled in the shower. But Hotch was gone from her room already.

He was smiling as he uttered, "Jessica, huh? Maybe…"

.

…..

End of Chapter 27


	28. Chapter 28

**Hello all! Sorry for the delay posting, Have been on a mini vacay with the in-laws!**

**Well, I have to say something to reviewer TyraHEU, while you have your right to express your views about this story, however I would appreciate if you would not use those language you did in the review section, please be a little more respectful to others. I mean you can always shoot me a PM if you want to cuss at me. Now, you also need to remember that this is the work of fiction and as in the beginning of this story I did say it is a love triangle and the angle leading is firm but there are still more twist in the story. I will not apologize over this. If you do not like it, it is your choice to not read it anymore but do not use the review site as your venting platform! If you think you can do better, write your own story to suit your own needs.**

**Thank you to guest reviewer and Sleep and Dream for pointing this out! You are my champions!**

**And to my beta, Magpie of Silver/pica Britania whom I didn't thank for helping me out in the previous chapter, Thanks!**

**And now...Enjoy!**

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 28

.

Emily and Hotch arrived at Paddington Station promptly at 825am but her INTERPOL team was already there in their dark nondescript van.

Sam had already briefed to the other members of the changes and they greeted Hotch warmly.

"So, what call sign should we assign him?" Bob asked.

"Well, in keeping with the Disney's Dwarves, the only ones left are Sneezy and Sleepy." Fanta suggested.

Hotch shook his head as he put on the INTERPOL Kevlar protective vest, "I don't think so guys."

They grinned, "It's not up to you, Hotch. Hey Snow!" Emily looked to them from her position in the front of the van, she was looking at monitors.

"Need a call sign for Hotch. Sleepy or Sneezy?"

She grinned, "Oh,"

Hotch glared at her as he shook his head, "No way, Em."

"Oh, way…Sleepy or we'll combine it and call it Snappy."

They all started laughing out loud as Hotch gave them an exasperated look, "I'm not Snappish. But then again, who would have guessed? Why not? While in …London…Snappish it is.. Snow."

Emily chuckled, "Aw, you're a good sport, Hotch."

He shook his head, "You owe me big, Em."

"Deal! When you and Jessica get things rolling." She teased him.

"Emily!" Hotch shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"Did you just roll your eyes?"Emily looked closely at Hotch. "That is so unHotch of you!" She grinned.

He closed his eyes this time in exasperation, "Who's in charge here?"

"Okay…okay…Snappy."

"Hey, Snow! It's Harry." Fanta said as he handed her a secure phone.

She walked to the desk, "Prentiss."

"Any word from Lucas?" Harry asked her.

"No, Harry. Can you clear the station before noon?"

"Yes, but it's not an easy thing, too many department heads to go through." Harry sighed.

"Rush hour will be in…Oh my god…Harry…" Emily paled as she swallowed hard, she was looking at the map on the desk.

"What is it, Emily? Are you having a heart attack? You are awfully young to have…"

"Harry…it's not coming here. The train is here already!" Emily said.

"What the devil are you talking about?"

"Rush hour is 12pm, think Harry, there's going to be a lot of people here at the station." Emily pointed.

There was a pause, "Fuck! Shit! Bloody shit!"

Emily heard Ruth exclaiming in the back ground.

"Yeah, I agree, Harry. So the bomb is here. Now the question is; which car?" Emily muttered.

"Is your team in place?"

"Yes, we're at the station already, Harry. We'll get a move on."

"All right, Ros and Dimitri are enroute but I don't think they'll be in time and do you have a bomb expert?"

"Just my explosives expert and I," She was thinking of Waltie.

"Well, let's hope we have time, get going Emily and please be careful." Harry said.

Emily smiled, "I knew you like me, Harry!"

"Prentiss… you're a hopeless case. Just get going please." Harry began to chuckle as he ended the call.

Emily laughed as well as she handed Fanta the phone and walked to her team.

"Okay guys, new orders; listen up. We're going to search for the bomb, it's here in one of one the trains."

They shook their heads as Emily continued, "Waltie, keep your ears on at all time, we're going to try to defuse it."

"We?" Hotch looked at Emily.

She nodded at him, "Lucas has probably armed it and I know we don't have the code…but it shouldn't be that hard."

Waltie spoke up, "Em, the biological pods…if we put in the wrong code or try to disarm it, it'll break apart. I don't have to tell you what's the consequences."

Emily nodded, "Guess we'll have to take our chances, it'll be rush hour in 3 hours, this station will be swarmed with hundreds of commuters and tourists. Harry will try to clear the station." Emily frowned as she tried to think about something but it wouldn't come up. Hotch saw her expression.

"Emily? What's on your mind?"

"What?"

"It's one of your tell." He said.

"My tell?"

He nodded, "When you're thinking of something, you frown hard and bite your bottom lip."

"I don't…" She shook her head.

"You forget whom you're talking to."He reminded her.

She looked at him annoyingly, "I thought we agreed not to profile each other?"

"That's when we're still working with the BAU team, you're not in the BAU anymore, remember?"

She glared at him annoyingly, "I hate profilers, especially the head profiler!"

He grinned at her as he reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear affectionately, "Really, what's on your mind, beautiful?"

Her team was watching them suspiciously;

"I thought she and Lucas…?" Bob whispered to Sam.

Sam shrugged, "I thought so too."

"You know these Yanks, they're open about their relationship and all." Waltie said.

"I don't think Lucas is aware about this relationship 'cause I'm not if I'm him." Sam pointed out.

"Me too." Waltie said.

"I'm with ya."Bob nodded.

"It's to do with Lucas." Emily frowned. "And I can't get it out of my mind. It's at the tip of my head."

"It'll come to you sooner or later." Hotch assured her, he patted her shoulder.

She nodded then clearing her expression she looked at her team, "Okay…we're going to split up. Sam, do your sweep with Bob and Waltie, Hotch will be with me. When you find the bomb, call it in. Question?" They shook their heads. "Let's get going guys. Good luck and be careful."

"You too, Emily." Sam nodded at her as they the rest of her team as they filed out of the van.

Most of the cars were currently at the station. Entering into the cars, they began to inspect every them meticulously which made the patrons very nervous but with the co-operation of the drivers and inspectors of the stations, it made their search easier.

Emily and Hotch almost missed it but at the last moment she saw it and it was by chance.

It was a train that was marked out of service. Emily almost walked by it and headed to another station but instinct hit her and she decided to investigate it.

Opening the door she walked into the dimmed out car and looked about and under the seats and looked on as she continued to onto the next one, Hotch following behind her.

Reaching the second to the last car, she saw the box; it was the size of two briefcases stacked on top of each other. There was a timer on the right side of the box. It was set to go off at noon.

Emily called in to Fanta and told him to relay to her team that she had found the bomb and it was armed.

She also had told Fanta to call Harry and Clyde Easter.

"Okay, what now?" Hotch asked.

"We have about one and a half hour to disarm it." Emily said.

"But we don't know the code. Who has it?"

"Lucas." She said.

"Wow." He arched his brow. "Just him?"

She nodded, "There was another person but she was taken out. And he is next…if he hadn't already."

_Snow, this is Dopey_.

"Go ahead"

_MI-5 wants target down._

"Which one?

_The ones from Russia._

"Copied. Relay to the others.

_Roger that._

Emily bent down and opened the case and saw that it was a number dial pad. "Looks like it requires a number code."

Hotch nodded, "Looks like it; thirteen numbers from the looks of it."

"Lucky number thirteen, just our luck…or unluck, which ever you want to look at it." Emil stared at the sequences as she bit her bottom lip.

Hotch watched her, "Still got that tickle in the back of your head?"

She looked up at him and nodded, "Yeah and it's got something to do with this." She pointed the dial pad with her chin.

Suddenly, they saw movements in the connecting car, "It's them!"Emily began running after them, Hotch behind her.

It was Arcady, Oleg and Lucas!

Emily opened the connecting doors and shouted at them, "STOP!" as she pointed her gun at them, Hotch's gun was pointing at them too.

The three turned and saw Emily and Hotch and stopped to meet her, their guns up and pointing at them too.

Oleg grinned, "Ah, the American bitch! Look, Lucas, she has a new fuck toy. I'm sad she's replaced you."

"That's Aaron Hotchner, he's also an FBI agent." Lucas informed him.

"Ah, a pair, how nice, look Arcady, we brought you a pair of American agents to …play with."

"Oleg," Arcady looked at them briefly then turned to Oleg. "Time's wasting. Take care of them and let's get going." He turned to Lucas and said in Russian. "Follow me, I have something to show you."

Emily called out to Lucas quickly in Arabic hoping no one but Lucas understood her as she used the nickname 'pigeon' she had teased him when they were in Syria, "Iyad! He's going to kill you."

Lucas paused for a moment before continuing on.

Arcady looked at her then at Lucas in Russian, "Do you know what she is talking about?"

Lucas shook his head as he turned to look at her darkly as he replied in Russian as well, "I don't know what that American bitch is talking about. I don't even understand what garbage she's saying…fucking insane bitch." Then he laughed darkly. "I think she is crazy just like my artist Blake," He pointed at his chest. "No one can understand why artists numbered their arts." He turned his dark gaze at Emily and sneered at her, "Oleg give her the mark of Thirteen on her for betraying me."

Arcady arched his brow at him and then nodded, "Oleg, you hear that? Lucas wants the special mark on her."

Oleg laughed, "It will be my fucking pleasure to put it on her lovely parts." He grinned maliciously. "Damn Lucas! You're fucking cold."

"I told her if someone else ever touches her, we're so fucking through and no one else will touch her either. I don't share my woman with anyone, especially this American bastard."

Emily and Hotch frowned at them as they laughed.

Oleg continued laughing hard, as did Arcady as he said, "Fine, Oleg will take pleasure in ensuring she screams as loudly as she can when he brands her."

Arcady continued, "Good, now Lucas let's go. Oleg we'll see you when you're done with her…but take care of him first." He nodded at Emily and Hotch.

Oleg waved at them as Lucas and Arcady left, hopping out of the car.

Hotch took a step forward but Emily shook her head, stopping him.

Hotch paused and nodded.

They turned their attention to Oleg instead.

"I see my obedient wife was not successful in taking care of her… housecleaning duties." Oleg grinned.

Emily shrugged at him and replied in Russian, "You know some women, they get a little sloppy."

Oleg, surprised, as he stopped smiling and said, "So, you knew how to speak my language all this time, you fucking bitch. No matter, my men will take care of your fuck toy and then I will personally mark you the way Lucas wants you to and I will take great pleasure in doing it!." Looking behind Emily, he said to the two men who appeared behind Hotch, "Get him first and then bring her to me." And turned to leave and went into the next car.

It was Anton and Ivan appearing close behind them but before they could raise their guns, Sam and Waltie came quietly from behind them, the barrels of their guns pressed tightly in their jugular veins by their necks.

Emily looked at them and spoke in Russian, "Don't move, boys, or my men will take you out before you know what hit you. Drop your guns now."

Anton and Ivan ignored her, Emily nodded at Sam who shot Anton instantly. Ivan paled as he dropped his gun immediately while Sam pushed Anton's body away from him while Waltie apprehended Ivan and placed him in custody and Sam took him away, "Come on, scumbag, let's go for a walk."

"Walt," Emily called out to him as she began to move to the other car. "Try to cipher the dial pad. We've got an hour to go."

He nodded as he began to bend down by the box.

"What was all that about?" Hotch asked her.

Emily shook her head, "They were talking about putting some tattoos in a very private area, a branding or a mark in Russia for women of lesser values, so that when she takes on another man, when he see her there, he would know she was taboo. Not many men would want to stick around with her for long for fear of retribution from her old boyfriend."

"But if she was shunned by him, what did it matter?" Hotch asked as they began to walk.

"It didn't matter; she would be watched by all who knew her. Like the Mafioso but worst"

Hotch nodded in comprehension, "Ah, I see."

Emily and Hotch entered the next car when she was hit by Oleg immediately with his gun. Reeling back from the impact on the side of her head, Emily felt dizzy as Hotch held her steady.

"I'm all right…just go get him." She waved him on as she saw Oleg had run on.

Hotch nodded as he began to rush forward.

Oleg turned around and fired a shot but luckily Hotch saw his intent and ducked in time to avoid the being hit and he fired back, and managed to hit Oleg in his shoulder who grunted in pain but kept on running albeit slightly slower.

Catching up to him, Hotch jumped and knocked Oleg down and punched him hard in his face, but Oleg didn't seem to feel any pain as he began to reach down to retrieve his dagger and made to stab at Hotch who was able to shoot him dead in chest, firing three shots.

"Hotch, I think he's dead." Emily stood over his shoulders, looking at Oleg.

Hotch nodded as he stood up and looked at Emily and said, "How are you?"

Touching the lump on the side of her head, "I'll live." She jerked her chin towards the other car when Waltie came on into her headset; _Snow, this is Bashful, over_.

Emily turned to glance at him in the connecting car; "go ahead."

_I cannot figure out the code._

Emily looked out beyond her but she couldn't see Arcady or Lucas, she turned to Hotch who shook his head.

"We'll get them. The bomb first."

Emily nodded and they turned back to the other car.

As they stood over Waltie, Emily stared at the dial pad again and ran her mind over their confrontation with Lucas and Arcady; she knew Lucas was trying to tell her something, just like previously he told her where they were heading. She knew he was not able to tell her much, not with Arcady standing next to him.

Running over his words she tried to remember what he wanted her to know; …_I think she is crazy just like my artist Blake," He pointed at his chest. "No one can understand why artists numbered their arts." He turned his dark gaze at Emily and sneered at her, "Oleg, give her the mark of Thirteen on her for betraying me." _

Emily frowned as she bit her lower lip again as she ran through those words, she knew his idol was William Blake and the painting on his chest…the tattoo on his chest was the one called Ancient of Days. A painting of God with one hand extended, striking a lightning down onto to earth…armed. Lucas knew those paintings well so for him to tell Arcady that it didn't make any sense, she didn't understand.

Wait a minute! The tattoo was not numbered, it was a drawing only. What was Lucas talking about? Mark of Thirteen…that was twice he referenced the number thirteen. Something about it, and the dial pad needed a thirteen digit code. _Come on Emily, think! _

Where was Reid when she needed him? He was on a big boat currently, probably puking his guts out! The Potomac River was known to be quite windy and choppy on most days!

Back to her dilemma, looking at her watch, they had less than an hour.

Ancient of Days, number thirteen….wait..how many numbers are there on the words in Ancient of Days, Emily counted; thirteen!

Emily whooped, startling Waltie, he almost fell from his stance.

"What!" He glared at her. "Em! This is no time for such foolish Yank Pow Wow cheerios!" He was waving his hands about nervously.

"Suck it up, Waltie! I think we might have something. Lucas has a tattoo on his chest, it's called Ancient of Days…"

"The artist William Blake?" Hotch looked at her.

She nodded then she turned back to her explosives expert, "There are thirteen letters in the title."

"Okay…that's a start. Now what?" Waltie asked.

Emily shook her head, "Well, I don't know now. This is how far I've gotten." She began to pace about the car.

"She's tenacious." Waltie remarked as he eyed her.

"You have no idea." Hotch nodded.

"Glad she's on our team."

"You are fortunate; you couldn't have gotten a better leader than her." Hotch smiled.

Waltie grinned, "Your lose our gain, mate."

Hotch nodded again, "Oh yes, I felt it every day."

"You? Not your team?"

"Well, both." He grinned.

"Again, your lose, our gain." Waltie grinned. "Especially Lucas North."

"He better be worth it."

"Me too." Waltie glanced at the countdown clock on the box, twenty minutes to go; the evacuation cut off time was in ten minutes; if they had not disarmed it, they would have to evacuate as well.

"Got it, Fanta thanks!" Emily came back running after she had writing a set of numbers on her palm.

She showed them a series of numbers on her palm..

"So how did you figure it out, Emily?" Hotch and Waltie asked.

"Ancient of Days has thirteen numbers, right?" they nodded. She continued, "First letter is an A which is the first letter of the alphabet, 1. Next, 'N' is the seventeenth letter and that is two-digits, add one and seven, you get 8. 'C' is 2, 'I' is eleven, one plus one and you get 2. And so forth. So the thirteen number code is 1832585 56 4194."

"Are you sure about it?"Waltie asked her. "Because if it's the wrong code, this will blow up right away."

Emily shrugged, "One way to find out, Walt. We don't have much time. If you're afraid, you can evac. But I'm staying." She turned to Hotch, "You should too, just in case."

He shook his head, "I trust you."

Emily arched her brow, "That's a first, Aaron. But still…you have Jack to think about."

"Who's Jack?" Waltie asked.

"My son." Hotch turned to him, "but like I said, I trust her implicitly."

Waltie nodded, "Well, if the Yank says he trusts you and he's putting his life on the line in your hands, then so will I. Enter the code, boss."

She looked at Hotch who nodded in agreement.

Leaning down onto the dial pad, Emily entered the number sequence and pressed the 'Enter' button and they all held their breath.

Five seconds later, three small beeps sounded and the box was turned off completely; they had successfully disarmed the bomb.

Now they could let out a collective sigh.

Emily was grinning widely as she muttered, "I can't believe the damn code has been with him all these years! If Arcady had known …" she shook her head.

Emily got on the mic and called in to Fanta to relay to him that the bomb was disarmed. Sam and the rest of the INTERPOL team was able to take the now inert bomb away.

She was now on the phone with Harry Pearce.

"We did it, Harry!" Emily grinned. "You can relax now. Your town is safe and sound."

_Emily, it's Lucas._ His tone was solemn.

Emily stopped walking as she paused near the INTERPOL van outside the station.

"What is it, Harry?"

_Ros is on the way to the hospital, he's not doing very well._

"Godamnit, Harry!" Emily yelled into the phone. "Just tell me what the hell is going on!" There were tears flowing onto her cheeks as Hotch tried to move near her but she shoved him away.

_Emily, you must calm down, we don't know much detail as of this moment, but Arcady is dead, they were in a terrible accident. I think Lucas deliberately rolled the car into a ditch. They found the car crushed pretty badly in there and Lucas is being airlifted to the hospital._

Emily slid down against the back of the vehicle as she held her head down, "Did they say how badly he is?"

_They wouldn't tell me a lot, I'm sorry Emily._

"Which hospital?"

Harry gave her the information.

"I'll be there ASAP."

_Emily for all its worth, you did a heck of a great job diffusing the bomb, good work._

She nodded, "Thank you, Harry." She said flatly as she ended the call.

Hotch bent down in front of her, "Em, what happened?" he touched her knees gently.

He head bent she told him what Harry Pearce had said.

"I'm sorry, Em. Do you want me to take you to the hospital?"

She shook her head, "Don't you have to head back to Virginia?" She said softly.

He shook his head, "Don't worry about me, tell me what you want to do."

She looked up at him and shook her head, "Go home, Aaron. Thanks for all you've done. I can take it from here."

"No, Em. You need me. I can stay for as long as you want me to."

She shook her head, "No, I…damn…"She suddenly got up and glare at him, "Go home Aaron. Seriously. Thanks for the help."

She unlocked the door and went into the van.

….

End of Chapter 28


	29. Chapter 29

**Thank you all for the lovely reviews! **

**To guest reviewer; CountryGirl – I know you wanted Hotch and Emily back together here but I'm sorry I can't give you that as Emily and Hotch have always been friends. In this story, she has already chosen who her mate is or will be. I can't see myself writing a H/P story as I don't see their relationship being THAT way! **** but then, who knows…I might take up a challenge and write one sometime later! Never give up! But keep the reviews coming!**

**Thank you Magpie of Silver for your great and utterly invaluable beta help! Without you I'm lost! Love et kisses! **

**.**

INTERPOL Intrigue /Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 29

.

Hotch banged on the door hard, "Emily! Open the door!"

No answer.

"If you guys don't open this door right now, I'm going to shoot the lock." He removed his gun from the holstered on his belt, and aimed it at the lock.

Before he carried his threat, Emily came out, her gear removed as she was back in her T-shirt and pants. Hotch lowered his gun and put it away and studied her carefully.

She looked at him and handed her house keys, "Here Aaron, there's a potted plant near the entrance of the apartment, just put them in there, I'll retrieve my keys when I get home." She moved in to hug him. "Seriously Aaron, I'll be fine." She hadn't let him go as she continued. "I have to be, and I want to be there for him, just me. I hope you'll understand."

She then pulled away from him and looked at him in his eyes.

"I understand, Em. Stay strong for him. He knows you care for him."

She shook her head, "I love him, Aaron." She began to cry as Hotch gathered her into his arms again.

"Em, shh…he'll be all right. He's a tough guy."

She nodded, "He'll make it, he'd better be."

"Good that's the attitude, Em," He said. "Now get out of here and go to him."

She chuckled, "Now I remember why I left the BAU…'cause I can't stand your damn bossy attitude!"

Hotch shook his head, "And here I thought you left because you love me too much."

She snorted, "You wish, Aaron."

"You're cute when you snort like a damn pig."

"Not funny, Aaron, not funny at all." She pushed him away from her. "Get out of here, Yank. Go back to Virginia."

He nodded and said, "Stay out of trouble, Em. I don't want to come all the way to rescue you again."

She shook her head at him as she grinned, "Get the hell out of my town, Aaron."

He shook his head and said softly. "Bye Emily."

"Bye Aaron, I love you and tell Jessica and Jack I say hey." She said as she climbed into her car and looked back and waved at him.

He saluted at her, "I will. And I love you too, beautiful." He entered the van and closed the door.

Emily drove away towards the hospital and Lucas.

…

At the hospital, she made inquiries at the reception desk and was directed to the intensive care unit.

There she was met by Ros Myers.

"Ros! Any word?" Emily asked anxiously.

Ros shook her head, "The doctors said he suffered a couple of broken ribs and head trauma but that was all they would tell me."

"Did you get to see him?"

Ros shook her head again. "I'm not family member, so I'm not permitted."

Emily frowned and walked to the nurse's station and talked briefly to them.

A few minutes' later, she came back and said, "Come on, we can see him for a few minutes."

Ros gave Emily a puzzled look, "How did you manage it, Emily?"

Emily turned to glance at the MI-5 senior officer, "I told them I was his fiancé."

Ros grinned back at her and shook her head, "That'll work."

They walked into a patient's room and saw with a surprise Lucas was standing up!

Not only that, he was in an embrace!

Ros and Emily exchanged surprise looks.

As they stood near the door, Ros whispered to Emily, "It looks like he's not on death's door."

Emily was looking angry as she shook her head, "No, he looked rather happy in the arms of that brunette."

Lucas looked up when he heard some noise and smiled when he saw Emily, "Emily!"

Emily walked up to him her looks was smoldering, "I see you survived the wreck."

He nodded as he grinned, "Just a few cracked ribs and some lacerations, Arcady should have taken my advice and worn his seat belt."

"But the doctors said you had broken ribs and head trauma?" Ros said.

Lucas grinned, "I'm afraid not, Ros, I'm a little tougher than that."

As he looked back to Emily, he softened but Emily continued to glare angrily at him as she move closer to him. The strange woman was still standing next to Lucas which inflamed Emily more.

"Good because you'll need it…here I am been worried sick about you the whole day when Harry told me you were in a wreck and no one knew how badly you were injured and all this time you've been busy in the arms of another woman!" With that Emily reared back her fist and punched Lucas hard in his face and a hard crunch sounded as she cracked her knuckles on his face as Lucas fell backwards and landed on the back of his head and fell hard on the metal frame, knocking him unconscious.

Emily shaking her hand turned around and walked out of the room, Ros followed behind her, laughing hard.

They heard the brunette calling for help.

"I take it the engagement has ended?" Ros grinned at Emily as they waited for the elevator.

Emily gave her a wry look, "You're damn right."

"I have never seen him behaving like that before."

"What? Like a snake?" Emily said as she looked at her fist which was slightly swollen. "Just my luck; I'm a magnet for snakes and bastards." She swiped her eyes quickly. "God! How could I be so stupid?"

"I have had my shares of snakes too but Lucas takes the cake." She shook her head. "I know he's my partner and friend but in this case, he's very wrong. And I can't apologize enough for him"

Emily waved her hand, "Don't. Don't bother doing it for him. We're through. I should have put a bullet in his head while I had a chance today if I had known. Double fucking crosser." She muttered as she wiped her eyes again.

Ros chuckled, "How about a drink or two? My treat?"

"Hell yeah, after the shitty day I had. Ought not to warn the asshole he's about to get his damn ass killed." They left the hospital and walked across the parking lot.

Emily's phone buzzed, "Hang on, I have to take this call, it's my boss…Yeah Clyde?"

"_Where are you at?"_

"Gee, I'm doing good, got my fucking ass kicked and I just saw my now ex boy friend making out with some brunette at the hospital while I thought he was dying but other than that I'm fine, Clyde, thanks for asking. I'm on my way getting fucking drunk, why?" She groused.

"_Sorry to hear about your shitty day and I'm about to make it worst for you but you needed to hear this, love. Beth Clemmons has escaped from the hospital."_

Emily closed her eyes, "That's just great. Any clue?"

"_No, I don't, that's why I have you working for me, darling."_

"Well, I don't know what to say, Clyde. She will naturally go for Hotch."

"_I don't think so, babe. I think she is coming for you because you fucked her plans."_

"Thanks, Clyde, I really need to hear the happy news."

"_Look, I have a real bad feeling on this, and I'd feel better if you have someone watching over you."_

Emily shook her head, "No, I hate bodyguards, Clyde. Seriously I'll be fine."

He paused for a moment before speaking again_. "Just be careful, darling. I mean it, ciao."_

"I will. Bye."

"Everything okay?" Ros asked her.

She told her about Beth Clemmons.

"Nasty."

Emily nodded, "Never thought she was capable. Thought she was a nice little placid museum chick, like a librarian."

Ros nodded, "Those are the ones you'd had to be careful."

Her phone buzzed again, she saw it was Harry Pearce. She smiled as she answered, Ros standing beside her.

"Hi Harry, you're calling me much too often, people will start talking about us."

"_Lucas called, he wants to…"_

She stopped smiling, "Listen Harry, this is none of your concern, no offense but stay out of it."

"_Look, I don't want to get involve as well but this is not about …"_

"Harry, I'm hanging up. I don't want to talk about him anymore. We're through. I did my job extracting him out and that's all."

"_Emily, will you just listen?"_

Emily paused for a moment, "If it's about him I don't' want to talk about it. If it's about the case today, it's fine, we'll talk about it, Harry."

"_It's the case, I've sent a team to take care of the rest of the biological pods but there is one missing and I do not have any idea where it's at."_

Emily frowned, "What the hell are you talking about? Is this something to do with Beth Clemmons?"

"_What? What are you talking about?"_

"Clyde just called and he said Beth Clemmons just escaped from the hospital, her whereabouts are unknown." Emily informed him.

"_Oh, Emily, this is not good. If the pod is mishandled…damn!"_ Harry exclaimed loudly. "_Fucking pods!"_

"Harry, how is the pod contained? And how can one mishandled it and what are the chances of it being exposed?"

"_Radiation poisoning level is extremely high if it's in direct contact. Minimal damage is about 100meter. But the pod is still volatile if exposed. Emil, you're vulnerable. She will be coming for you."_

"That's what Clyde said. But I don't think she'll strike so quickly." Emily looked around her.

"_Who's there with you now?"_

"Ros, we're heading to a pub…I'm getting shitfaced." She grinned at Ros who shook her face and rolled her eyes upwards.

There was a pause and Harry spoke again. "_Okay, I'll pretend I understand what it means and trust the two of you to stay together. Let me talk to Ros."_

Emily handed her phone to Ros, "It's his Royal Highness."

Ros raised her brows as she took the phone, "Myers."

"I'll be sure to keep her with me at the pub…McBride's…yeah Harry. What? No, it means getting drunk, it's an American expression." She grinned at Emily as she shook her head. "She's really pissed at him, oh…he was really hugging her, whoever she was." Ros tried to speak in a soft tone but Emily shook her head. "Um, yah Harry. No, she decked him. How was he? Really?" Ros laughed. "Well, he deserved it, and I'm on her side…tell Ruth she should have been there…yeah…no, I would have been too. He really screwed up this time. I don't know if she will. Okay, I'll keep an eye on her. Bye." She handed the phone to Emily.

"Harry is pissed at Lucas on your behalf," Ros grinned. "You know, Harry never takes to anyone at all especially from the outside. You must have impressed the heck out of him." Ros said.

"I'm surprised too, Ros. He hated my guts in the beginning…so did you, if I remember correctly?" Emily looked at her.

Ros nodded, "Yes, I did. I thought you were too cocky for your own good. I thought you were showing off and had no business being in the field."

Emily grinned. "I know but I know what I'm doing."

"Yeah, you did." Ros admitted. "So did Lucas. He didn't like it at all. Losing out to you."

Emily arched her brow, "Losing out to me?"

"You beat him, remember?"

Emily grinned, "Oh yeah…I remembered that…he was pretty pissed at me."

Ros nodded. "Never seen him curse the way he did. If it weren't for the fact we were interagencies, I think he was tempted to empty his gun on you."

Emily widened her eyes at her and then they began laughing together!

"Damn! I didn't know he hated my guts that much!" Emily chuckled.

Then she looked at her watch and said, "Come on its getting late, let's head out."

Ros nodded. "Oh, Harry wants us at the GRID at 0900hrs."

"Why?"

Ros shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. He wants to talk about the biological pod, I think."

Emily frowned, "_He_ better not be there!" Referring to Lucas.

"Agreed, I'm pissed at him too."

"I'll meet you at McBride's in 20?"

Ros nodded, "Yes, I'll see you there in a bit." She climbed into her car.

An hour later, Ros was still waiting for Emily in front of McBride's; it had only taken her less than 20 minutes to get there from the hospital. She tried to call Emily on her cell phone but Emily was not answering it.

Half an hour later, Ros was on the phone with Harry Pearce.

"Harry, I think something has happened to Emily." She said worriedly as she explained to him.

….

End of Chapter 29


	30. Chapter 30

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 30

.

Lucas was sitting by the hospital bed when Harry appeared beside him the next morning.

He looked up and nodded, "Hello Harry."

"Nice to see you alive, Lucas." Harry said sternly.

Lucas frowned, "Did I do something wrong?"

Harry looked around the hospital room, finding a stool he pulled it over and sat in front of Lucas.

"What the fuck are you playing at, Lucas?"

His frown deepening, "Harry, I have not the slightest you're talking about."

"First of all, you don't fuck with Emily Prentiss and leave her. You don't know who you're dealing with…"

Lucas shook his head but stopped short as he winced hard holding his chest which was still bandaged.

Harry looked at his chest, "How's the bruising?"

"It hurts to breathe but not as bad as her punch," he pointed his bruise on his face; his left cheek was now a dark red welt.

"Well, you deserved that beating. I ought to give you one on the other side, too." Harry said angrily.

"Harry, listen to me…this is all a mistake. The woman…she is…"

"Hello? Am I interrupting?" It was the same brunette from yesterday. Harry stood up as well as Lucas who was smiling at her.

Harry stood up, as well as Lucas.

"Harry, allow me to introduce you to Dr. Maya Lahan. Maya, this is Harry Pearce, my boss."

They shook hands.

"A pleasure, Dr. Lahan." Harry said stiffly.

Maya smiled as she returned his handshake, "The pleasure is mine, Mr. Pearce. I'm glad to meet Lucas' boss."

"Harry, I was about to tell you Maya and I were friends from our University days and we'd lost contact after graduation." Lucas grinned at her.

"That's lovely." Harry commented. "Lucas, I must speak to you privately and it is rather urgent."

"Well, I won't keep you gentlemen then, it's nice to meet you again, Mr. Pearce, we'll talk more Lucas." Maya waved to them and left the room.

Lucas turned to Harry, "What is going on, Harry?"

"Emily is missing." Harry finally told him.

Lucas stared at him for a moment as his features paled, "Are you sure? When did that happen?"

"While you're having your happy reunion with your long-lost girlfriend last night," Harry pointed out. "Emily and Ros were supposed to meet at a pub but she never made it."

"Any idea who's done this?"

"Beth Clemmons, she escaped from the hospital and not only that, one of the biological/nuclear pod is missing from Surrrey."

"How the hell does Beth know about the pod?" Lucas demanded as he gasped for air.

"Take it easy, Lucas." Harry said. "She was in communiqué with Arcady and Elizabeta before they died."

Lucas looked up, "Elizabeta is dead?"

Harry nodded, "Emily took care of her. I hope it's okay with you?" He said sarcastically.

"Of course it is, Harry!" Lucas glared at him. "What the hell is going on with you?"

Harry arched a brow at him, "You know for a moment, I'm not sure who's side you're on…in fact I wonder if you know where Emily is?" Harry accused him.

Lucas looked at him darkly, "Harry, what are you saying?"

"Are you working with Beth? Lucas, do you know where Emily has been taken?" Harry asked him.

Lucas shook his head, "Damnit, Harry! How could you accuse me of this!" He leaned close to Harry who did not back down from him. "I don't even know who this Beth Clemmons is!"

Finally, after what seemed like some years but was seconds, they relented and backed away as Harry spoke, "Have you any idea how many times she stuck her neck out for you?"

Lucas nodded, "I'm well aware of it, Harry."

"The beatings…"

Lucas closed his eyes, "I know…I wish it was me they punished."

"And yet she never once complained about it. Her priority was you, and getting you out of Kachimov's hands…the bomb…it was down to less than a few minutes before it was diffused." Harry said as he looked beyond the window.

Lucas shook his head, "I knew she could figure it out but that was cutting it too close."

Harry nodded. "So, you had the code marked on your body all this time."

Lucas nodded, "They never suspected it. Harry, how do I get her back?" he asked.

Harry looked closely at Lucas before answering, "I wish I knew. But I haven't the slightly idea where she's been taken."

"What about Hotchner? He knew Beth better than anyone else."

Harry nodded, "We might have to get in contact with the FBI and get their help." He then sighed. Let's hope he knows."

Lucas nodded.

Harry jerked his head up, "When can you be released?"

Lucas, "I want to get out of here now, if I can help it." He walked up to the door and left the room.

Harry was on his cell phone.

An hour later, Lucas was in the car with Harry. "Well, that wasn't so bad," he winced as he gingerly moved about him.

Harry looked over him skeptically. "It was against your doctor's orders you were released. Just don't fall flat on your damn face." He said as he drove back to the GRID.

Lucas grinned, "So, how pissed is Ros at me?"

"Oh, I wouldn't go near her at the moment, not if you want to go back to the hospital."

"I see she and Emily bonded pretty well."

"You could put it that way. The team had already got their protective arms around her."

Lucas arched his brow, "Wow, where was I at?"

"Playing your best role of the year; a traitor." Harry replied smoothly.

Lucas looked at him, "I was only doing my job, Harry."

"I know but you're doing it only too brilliantly."

He grinned, "Yeah, I should get a medal or something, not a couple of bruised ribs." He rubbed his chest, the nurse had taped it tightly to enable him to move about easier.

"As I said, be lucky it's all there is to it, Emily would love to see you in a box."

Lucas stopped smiling, "Yeah, she would…Harry, about Maya…"

Harry shook his head, "Look Lucas, I'm not interested in your past love life. But you listen well, Emily is the best thing that's happen in your life now so don't screw it up. You don't know her now….and she is …" Harry shook his head again as he glance over to Lucas and said in a serious tone, "She is a damned fine agent and a person. I wish she is one of us. She would be my successor."

Lucas gave him a look and nodded, "She has that affect on all of us."

Harry nodded. "I feel responsible for getting her into this damn mess and I want to get her back before Easter brings the entire INTERPOL agency on me. And you don't want them breathing down on our necks."

"I'll get her back, Harry. I need her." He looked out of the vehicle window.

Harry looked at Lucas and said, "You better be telling me the truth about the whole thing Lucas." Harry said as they drove into the parking deck near Thames house.

As they walked into the GRID, the team gave Lucas a dark look but they made no comment as they worked in their cubicles.

The senior officers were already seated in the conference room and when Ros saw Lucas, she glared at him.

"How dare you show your damn face here?"

"Ros, you know me better, it's a mistake!"

"Okay, let's cut the gossip and get this going. Tariq, patch us video conference with the FBI BAU team leader, Aaron Hotchner in Virginia."

"Yes sir." Tariq nodded as he began to type on his laptop.

But instead of Hotch's face, he got Garcia's face.

"_Hello? What 's going on here? MI-5? Lucas? Is that you?"_

"Hello Garcia, yes." Lucas smiled, "May we have a word with Hotch?"

"_Hotch? Oh yeah, give me a few, just FYI…the team is on their way to Utah on a case twenty minutes ago, so you're getting him on the jet."_

Lucas nodded.

She dialed a number and began talking to him on the phone

"_North?"_ It was Hotch on a video patch via the BAU jet. "_What's going on?"_

"Hotch, you're talking to MI-5 HQ and my boss, Harry Pearce."

Hotch nodded.

"Agent Hotchner, please to meet you."

"_Likewise, Pearce."_

"I won't beat around the bush but Beth Clemmons has escaped from the local hospital here, she disguised herself as a nurse and managed to escape."

Hotch nodded, "_Is she on her way here?"_

"I'm afraid not, she's taken Emily."

Hotch was visibly startled.

"Not only that, she has taken a biological nuclear pod that if not handled properly, she can expose up to 50 kilometers all around. Agent Hotchner, can you tell us about Beth's background in regards to her ties in Russia?"

Hotch shook his head, "_I'm sorry but I just recently discovered about her roots from Emily. I think her tech analysis from INTERPOL might have information on her. Pearce, is there anything else we can do?"_

Harry shook his head, "Not at all. Thank you for your help."

"_Wait!"_ Hotch looked over to Lucas. "_I know this is not a private call but Lucas, please get her back. She…cares a lot about you."_

Lucas nodded, "I will, Hotch. Thank you. She means very much to me too."

Hotch shook his head. "_No, you don't North. She told me she loves you."_

Lucas was speechless and then he nodded, "I …I…"

Suddenly a hand smacked the back of Lucas' head as Ros came into view, "I'll make sure he sees sense in it, Agent Hotchner."

Hotch grinned, "_Thank you. Emily is our family. We all love her and cared a great deal about her, if anything happens to her…"_

"She won't" Lucas leaned over, "I will get her back, Hotch."

Hotch nodded, "_I hope so for your sake North, she's not easy to step on or you'll have a lot to answer to. Hotch out."_

The video screen was blank.

"Tariq…"

"Yeah…INTERPOL…tech analysis." Tariq nodded.

But instead of Fanta's face appearing on the video screen, it was Clyde Easter's.

"_Well hello -5, glad to see you folks. North, happy to see you kicking around alive."_

"Thanks Easter." Lucas nodded at him.

"We needed something from your tech analysis, Fanta." Lucas said.

"_About Beth?"_

"That would be an affirmative." Harry said. "We're certain she has Emily and the pod."

Clyde nodded and looked over to his left and said, "_Fanta, let them know what you told Emily about Clemmons."_

The young Asian man began to tell -5 about what he told Emily the history of Beth Clemmons or Olga Volkov.

When he was done; both parties was quiet.

"Strategies, gentlemen and ladies?' Clyde started.

They looked at each other and thought.

"Harry," Lucas spoke up. "I think we need to place a track on Emily's car and her cell phone."

Harry nodded and looked over to Tariq.

"Considered it done, Lucas." The young man nodded. "Looks like GPS is pointing to…great…here in London." He looked at Harry.

"A lot of good it does us," Harry shook his head. "It could be anywhere."

"Keep it on track, you never know she might use the phone, Beth wants to get out of this country and needs funds, she'd want to use Emily for leverage." Lucas continued.

"Agreed but the question is who will she contact for ransom?"

"Her parents." Lucas said.

"Bloody hell! I'd hate to get them involved. It's almost like getting the President or the Royals involved." Harry ran his hand through his hair. "Tariq, get me James Prentiss at the US Consulate building…might as well break the dam…"

…..

"Beth…if you let me go…you'll get more leniencies for your jail time." Emily said groggily; the side of her head was bleeding badly.

"Shut up Emily! Nothing you say will convince me. I want my money, you lost me a lot of my money and you're worth a lot, Emily. I checked your family. You rich bitch." Beth struck Emily again with a tire iron. This time it hit her on her back as she fell onto her stomach.

Emily lay on the concrete ground, she could taste blood in her mouth as she felt nauseous.

"Beth, if I'm dead, you'll definitely not get any money from my family."

"Oh I will, if I have to send them piece by piece of you." She looked at Emily in a deranged way.

Emily managed to open one eye and try to look at where they were at but all she could see was dimness, she figured they were in a building or something similar. Then she passed out from the pain.

When she woke up again, Emily tried to but her arms didn't seem to be moving without feeling sharp piercing pains.

"Oh, don't bother trying to escape," Beth held up a piece of barb wire with a heavy glove.

Emily began to laugh weakly, "Wow, you're really a piece of work, Beth. And to think Hotch had once loved you."

Beth leaned closely to Emily, "I still love him, and when I get my money, I'm going back to him."

Emily shook her head, "Aaron is going to put an end to your sorry bitching ass, if I don't get to you first."

"Oh? How are you going to do that? You're kind of wired up, pardon the pun." She laughed cruelly. "If not Aaron, I'll find another man…It's easy to find a man, if you know the right place…like the park."

"So you've been targeting Aaron all this time?" Emily asked.

"Targeted, checked out, and found him wanting." She sneered.

"You're something, Beth, I hope you rot in hell when your time comes."

"No!" Beth screamed at her as she hit Emily again across her shoulders. "You're the one who's going to hell first when I'm done."

Emily coughed out more blood as she laughed, "…psycho bitch, One way or another, you'll not walk out of here alive. I should have ended your live before but I felt sorry for the kid you're carrying."

"Oh, didn't the doctor tell you?" She glared at her. "I miscarried when you shot me. So, I'm going to do you a favor, I'm going to make sure you won't have any children ever again too. An eye for an eye…or in this case, a kid for a kid."

She held out a long sharp knife for Emily to see.

Emily shook her head and thought quickly, "Beth, listen…I can't have kids…I had an abortion when I was fifteen and the doctor that did it, he botched the abortion and I …I…almost bled to death. But another doctor fixed me up." Emily was breathing hard as Beth was not listening to her. "BETH! I cannot have children! Don't do it!" She was screaming at her.

"I don't believe a word you said. You're just trying to save yourself."

"Just check the scares on my abdomen…" Emily urged as she tried to raise her head up.

Beth looked at her and then lifted Emily's shirt and saw her scars, "That didn't meant anything. Ian Doyle stabbed you too, you're lying!" She raised the knife again.

"NO, BETH!" Emily screamed. "Call my father! He will give you the money! Call him, Beth!" Emily was struggling against the barbed wire despite its thorniness. "Call the US Consulate Building here in London," Emily gave her the phone number while she tried find a way to free herself.

"Oh, don't struggle too much or try to get out of it, or that will drop on you and you'll melt instantly." She pointed at the biological pod dangling loosely above Emily.

Beth picked up Emily's cell phone and pointed at her said, "This had better not be a fake phone number."

"It's not, ask for James Prentiss. He works for the National Security Council…" Emily said."

….

Back at the GRID.

"Harry, I got a notice on Emily's cell phone!"

"Where is it at?" Lucas was standing up and despite the pain, he was moving by the door, Ros was next to him.

"It's near the London Bridge!" Tariq said excitedly. "King William St, towards Duke St. It's in an abandoned building business by an alley way complex, Lucas."

Lucas nodded, "Patch me on my cell, Tariq, Thanks."

"Lucas, are you all right to handle this?" Harry looked at him.

Lucas nodded, "I have to get her back Harry."

"Then you best get going. Ros, keep him in check, will you?"

"I will Harry, the question is, how Emily will take this?" She nodded and left, hurrying after Lucas.

Harry glanced over to Ruth, "Let's hope this ends well."

"Harry, you might want to call Hazmat. She still has the pod." Ruth reminded him.

Harry nodded as he picked up his cell phone. "When this nightmare is over, I'm going to get…what is the term Emily used?" he said quietly, out of Tariq's earshot.

"I believe she said shit faced." Ruth pointed out.

Harry arched his brows and nodded, "Yes, and I wouldn't mind some company."

Ruth nodded, "Oh, I will be happy to get similarly done."

…

Beth ended her call and said to Emily, "Well, Daddy dearest is certainly willing to pay for you." She smiled as she aimed the cell phone at Emily, "Smile for your daddy!" and took a photo and sent it to James Prentiss.

"Just to remind him…" She typed the amount again and sent it. "$3 million. How rich you're worth."

…

James Prentiss was on the phone with Harry Pearce as soon as he received the phone call and sent the picture to Harry as well; feeling disgusted and sick to his stomach.

"I hope you know what you're doing Harry? Please get her back now!"

"I do, James. Lucas and another of my officer are on their way." Harry's face was pale when Tariq put the picture of Emily's bloody and bruised face on the large screen, Harry swallowed hard as tried to remember the beautiful face of Emily…and the smiling one of her when she was teasing him at Hyde Park only a day ago…it had seemed a long time ago!

"Harry, I do not have to remind you, she is my only child and her mother will not take kindly if something happens to her." James said.

"We are trying our best, Sir James."

"That's all I ask. I'll be there directly." He ended the call.

"Oh shit." Ruth said.

"Sometimes I hate my job."

_God, Lucas hurry up and get her out of there before this bitch …._He couldn't finish the rest of his thoughts, which was the first for him as usually he was calmed.

He clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles were white.

"Harry," Ruth whispered, "Keep your cool, she'll be fine, she'll…oh dear." Ruth stood up and quickly rushed out of the room.

"Tariq, kindly remove the image from the screen." Harry said quietly.

Tariq nodded as he changed the screen to the MI-5 logo on the video screen. He stood up as well, "Excuse me, Harry…" he rushed out of the room as well.

Harry closed his eyes as he rubbed his face and cussed a few times.

…

Emily felt herself weakening as she looked around, Beth was hovering over her as she kept glancing at her watch.

"Don't worry Beth, my father will get you your money."

She looked down at her, "He'd better or you'll not get to see him ever again."

Emily closed her eyes and opened them again, "Why Aaron, Beth? Why did you target him?" She asked him weakly. She heard noises outside and decided to distract Beth.

"He is nice and would have been a good father for my future children. And he'd be good cover for my business."

"You're going to use Aaron as a cover for your black market? That's not going to happen, Beth, you know Aaron will find out sooner or later. He is too smart for that." Emily began to cough as pain began to intensify.

Beth smiled, "Oh, not when he is so besotted with me, he'll never know what's going on behind his back." She was playing with the knife and she ran the blade along Emily's abdomen.

"Beth, listen to me, this is ridiculous, your plans are not going to work…aargh!" Emily winced in more pain as Beth sliced her skin as more blood seeped out.

"Your father is late, the money is not in the account yet…" Beth was looking at the cell phone.

Tears were leaking down Emily's face, "…takes time…" she grunted as she tried to take a labored breath. "Godamnit Beth!"

"Maybe another picture, and send it to your father, that will speed things up." She sent the photo to Emily's father again.

….

James Prentiss was at the conference room in -5 with Harry, Ruth, and Tariq when his cell phone rang and it was another photo of Emily. He didn't even open it and slid it over to Harry.

Harry's hands shook slightly when he saw the image and cussed silently. He didn't show it to Ruth or Tariq.

"Where are Lucas and the others?" James looked at Harry.

"They should be there already."

"Not fast enough, Harry! Emily might not make it by that time!" He banged his fist in anger on the table.

Harry nodded.

…

Near King William St. Lucas and Ros saw Emily's car parked in an alleyway but there was no one inside, they moved silently into an abandoned commercial building next to it and slowly opened the door and moved inside.

Lucas and Ros moved into the room and saw Beth leaning over Emily who was wrapped up in barbed wire. Her face was swollen and bloodied.

Lucas was incensed and ready to jump at Beth when Ros held him and pointed up above them.

The biological nuclear pod was hanging precariously down by the barbed wire connected to Emily.

Ros whispered to Lucas, "If we cut Emily from the wire, the pod will collapse and break open."

Lucas nodded.

They looked up suddenly as Emily screamed again, Beth was cutting her with the knife.

Lucas, "That's it…the bitch is dead." He stood up and fired at her right in the back of her head multiple times. Beth fell forward onto Emily, dead instantly. Emily screamed again as the weight of Beth pressed hard on the barbed wire into her.

"Emily!" Lucas yelled as he rushed to her, shoving Beth away from her.

"You!" Emily tried to yell at him weakly. "What are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you, babe." He said as he tried to uncoil the barbed wire but they were cutting his hands as well.

"Lucas! The pod!" Ros was looking up at it. He looked up as it was swinging hard.

"We have to call HAZMAT…and medical!" Lucas said.

Ros nodded as she began calling on her cell phone.

"Ros, I don't want to talk to this scumbag…" Emily began to fade out.

"Emily! Look at me!" Lucas stroked her cheek. "Em! Please!"

No response as Lucas leaned down to get a pulse but the barbed wire was wrapped around her neck as well.

"Ros! I can't get a pulse on her!" Lucas shook his head. "Em! EMILY!"

Ros was on the phone with Harry, he had heard Lucas in the background yelling.

…

End of Chapter 30


	31. Chapter 31

**And now the Conclusion...**

**.**

INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 31

.

In less than 10 minutes, three different teams came into the building to work on Emily; the HAZMAT, the medical emergency and the engineering.

The last one was quite tricky as they found that the thick thorny parts of the wire was imbedded into Emily's flesh as they gingerly pulled them out but as Emily was unconscious, she did not feel any pain at all while they worked as quick as they could.

The medical team was able to revive her; her heart beat was weak and erratic, but there, much to the relief of Ros and Lucas as well as those at the GRID, and Clyde Easter and the INTERPOL team, and the BAU team.

The HAZMAT team was able to remove the Pod without any incident and thankfully there was no leak but they did saw that part of the pod was slightly damaged near the glass. The removal was hurriedly done and gone. Harry Pearce was thankful to put an end to the entire situation of the biological pods and permanently sealed the bunker. The pods were removed by the Nuclear Waste Team and properly disposed of.

As soon as the wire was removed from Emily's body, the medical team was able to take her out of the building and transferred to the hospital, Lucas and Ros rode with them. Her father was enroute to meet her there with Harry and Ruth.

They spent the entire night at the hospital as a team of doctors worked on her; Emily's father had called in for the best surgeon to take care of his daughter.

Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss was on her way when she heard the news of her only daughter but she was not able to get into London until morning.

When the surgeon finally came out of the operating room, several hours later, he looked haggard but sad.

James Prentiss stood up immediately when he spotted the surgeon, Lucas was standing by his side, as well as Harry, Ruth, and Ros.

"James…" Dr. Martin Pastandnicke nodded at his friend as he removed his cap and leaned against the wall to catch his breath.

James walked up to him, "Marty, what news on Emily?" He seemed to age twice in the span of one night.

"Emily has lost a great deal of blood but she is responding well to the transfusion. The head trauma is a bit worrying, MRIs are negatives which is a good sign, James." He looked around him and saw the -5 officers standing by him and frowned.

"James, er…a private audience?"

James looked at Lucas and nodded at him and he stepped away and walked to stand by Harry.

James and the doctor began to talk in a low tones, James looked startled for a moment and paled as he shook his head. After a moment the surgeon nodded and patted his back, walked away from James.

James then walked over to Harry and his officers and spoke to them.

"Emily is resting in the intensive unit, Marty is letting me stay with her. We may see her for a couple of minutes if you want to…Lucas, a moment?"

They glanced at him as he arched his brow at James.

"Come, we'll go see Emily for a moment before we go home." Harry ushered Ruth and Ros.

Ros gave Lucas an encouraging nod before she turned to follow Harry to the ICU room next to them.

It was a moment before James spoke up.

"Lucas…I don't know how to put it but Marty said…" James stopped and shook his head and then cleared his throat and began again. "I'm sorry, Lucas but there's no way of putting it. Emily was pregnant but Marty had to…" He shook his head, "…too much trauma in her body,"

James shook his head as he turned to the wall as his shoulders shook hard, "…I'm sorry but she can't have any more children." James then walked away.

Lucas looked on in shock.

…

_Emily was running away from the Wicked Stepmother as fast as she could but her dress was in the way! Bending down, she tried to rip the long gown._

"_No time, Snow! Come on!"_

_Emily looked up and saw Sam and her team as they beckoned her into the forest, holding their guns as they began to blend into the trees._

"_Wait for me Doc! Bashful! Grumpy!" Emily was holding on to her blasted dress as she ran headlong into the trees but it began to change into thorns as it pierced into her skin!_

"_Ouch! Watch it, Snow!" Emily looked up and saw her dwarves all hung up and wrapped up by the thorny tree that now turned into barbed wire, they were grinning at her!_

"_Don't come any closer or it's going to melt, Snow!" Happy was holding his new born baby who was also wrapped in the barbed coils as they all pointed to multiple green liquid apples above them that changed into the nuclear pods._

"_Don't damage them, Snow!" Dopey shook his head nervously and suddenly one of the pods fell and rained green liquid on all of them as they began to melt away._

_Emily ran from them as she went deeper into to the thorny forest, her face and hands cut into shreds but she continued to run._

"_Snow, don't run from me!" Emily stopped and saw she was suddenly in a hospital room and Lucas smiling happily at her, "I'm your Lucky Charms, remember me?"_

_Emily smiled as she rushed to him, "Lucas! You're all right!"_

_He held his arms wide open but another woman ran in and he embraced her willingly and kissed her deeply!_

_Emily hesitated and stopped on her tracks._

_Suddenly, Beth began slashing at her with her long knife as she scream, "You cannot have children! No more children for you! Kid for a kid!...Kid for a kid!"…._

_Lucas still hugging the brunette, was laughing at her and repeating Beth; Kid for a kid! No more children for you, Snow!_

Emily snapped her eyes opened for a second as she heard multiple beepings and voices;

She closed them again as everything faded to black….

"Her heartbeats are erratic! Call the doctor!"

"What is happening to Emily?"

Mr. Prentiss, please calm down…we're trying to get her back…"

"James, please!" Elizabeth's voice pleaded.

"We need to get her back to the operating room…."

"Oh my god!"

"You need to leave the room, all of you now!"

"NO! Not till you tell us what is happening to her!"

"We're trying to save her!"

"Then do it!"

"Emily! Stay strong! I love you…"

"Come on, Lucas."

"No, I'm staying with her, she needs me."

"James, get him out of here."

"I can't, Elizabeth…"

"James, he needs to get some food, he hadn't eaten in days."

"Lucas…please…"

"I'm fine, James. I'm not hungry. Emily, needs me."

_Oh, Lucas, you do need to eat! Go, get you something! I'm hungry too!_

"How is she?"

"The same, no change."

_Oh hi, Clyde! I'm fine! What's going on? Hope you're keeping my guys in check at the FOREST. Yeah, I've decided to call my place, the FOREST; just like -5 has the GRID. I think it has a nice ring to it, being that my call sign is Snow White and the guys are my Dwarves._

"How are you holding up, North?"

"I'm well, Easter, thanks."

"May we talk?"

"Certainly, here is as good as any, if you don't mind. I don't want to leave her side, in case she wakes up."

_Men, always talking work!_

"Just to let you know, you're in the clear with INTERPOL. Kashimov and Darshavin had been implicated in the plot to take over Russian's government. But there's a bigger mess there which is none of our concern at the moment."

"Thanks, I appreciate that."

"Don't mention it. I hope Emily knew about this, you're not the traitor everyone suspected. You played your role well. Good job. INTERPOL owes you one."

"Just doing my job, Easter."

"At what cost, Lucas? You almost lost her?"

"I know but she is not lost. I'm not giving up on her yet, if it takes forever."

_Aw, Lucas! That's a nice thing to say…but what about that brunette?_

"She'll come around. Has the doctor said anything?"

"Not a lot, her recovery is slow, given her injuries."

They were quiet for a while as neither spoke.

_Hey! Say something! I'm not dead yet, guys!_

"Emily…"Clyde began. "She is a wonderful friend."

Lucas nodded, "You're her closest friend. She knew you the longest…and did you two?"

Clyde started to laugh. "If you think Em and I…no." he shook his head. "We're just great friends. We understood each other too much to let that happened."

_Lucas! Are you jealous? Of Clyde and me? Oh my god! Clyde? No way!_

"But? Not even tempted?" Lucas pressed on.

"Don't get me wrong, Emily is beautiful, and so many times I wanted to …you know but she…" he shook his head. "She is just not that kind of girl. She picks her guy carefully."

Clyde looked at him, "You're fortunate. She chose you. And she doesn't do it lightly. Not even Hotchner."

"How did you know?"

"Oh, I know. Em can't lie to me well. I know her."

"You do?"

"And I'm not telling you how I know. If you can't figure her by now, you're not worthy of her." Clyde said.

_Damn you Clyde! How did you figure me too? First Aaron, now you! Am I that transparent? Don't you tell Lucas how to do it too!_

Clyde stood up, "Well, keep me informed on her, I have to leave for France. INTERPOL HQ wants a full brief on this fiasco and since Emily is out in limbo, I have to talk for her."

He held out his hand to Lucas, "Take care of her please."

"I will Clyde. You too." He shook his hand.

Clyde moved to Emily's bed and bend down to kiss her on her nose as he whispered, "Can't kiss your damn lips or forehead as they had you wrapped up like a fucking mummy. So I can kiss the only spot that's exposed. But hurry up and get better, Em, my love."

_A mummy? Hmmm, no wonder everyone talked so funny, like they're in a muffled room_.

"Emily babe," Lucas said. "It's just you and me by ourselves for the moment. Your mum and dad had gone to get some shut eye, they'll be back later and they're going to toss me out of here."

_You should. You need to get some sleep, Lucas._

"Emily darling, I want you to listen to me, I want you to know about Maya…"

_I don't!_

"…we met at University and yes I fell in love with her and thought she was the one for me but we lost touch when I joined MI-5. As you can see I was very surprised to see her again a few days ago. I mean she was my love and all, and we were engaged for two years…"

_You were? Oh Lucas!_

"…but she had moved on now. She's happily married with three children of her own. And you know, I don't feel anything anymore for her. But I feel so much love for you. It's always been you, babe. When I was with Oleg and Elizabeta, I couldn't believe I was married to her! I don't know what I saw in her in the first place. So thanks for getting rid of her for me."

_You're welcome…honey._

"I only thought of you. I couldn't wait to get back to you. I wanted to end it all with Arcady and the whole mess. And I'm so proud of you for figuring out the code. No one could understand Blake as well as you could. But I have you now…I don't need Blake anymore. Thank you."

_But …I can hear a but…what is going on honey? Tell me Lucas?_

"Please get better, babe…" His voice cracked. "I'm going to tell you something but please don't get upset, we'll figure something out. Did you know we were about to be mum and dad ourselves?"

_What? I'm pregnant?_

"But you lost the baby…Beth killed our baby…my dearest."

_NO!_

"It's okay…well, it's not I mean you can't have anymore because they have to remove your…um parts…but we can adopt, can we? Remember we talked about having a boy and a girl? We can still have them. Nothing is impossible."

_Oh, Lucas…no more babies! Our babies….no…._

"Emily, will you marry me?"

"…Y..e..s…"

Lucas jumped out of his chair and looked closely at the bandaged Emily.

"Babe? Did you say yes? Did you understand what I asked you, squeeze your hand."

He was holding her hand and she squeezed it lightly.

Lucas laughed as he leaned in and kissed her nose. "I love you, Emily Prentiss!"

She nodded as she squeezed his hand again.

"Lucas?" James and Elizabeth were standing by the doorway of the room.

Lucas looked up, tears in his eyes, "Emily just said yes…!"

"Yes to what? She's awake?" Elizabeth rushed to her daughter's side.

"I asked her to marry me, James, Elizabeth, and she said… I didn't know she was awake, I thought I was talking to myself and well, to her but I thought she was still in a coma but she said yes!"

James grinned, "Calm down son." He shook his head. "I have not approved of this union yet. And don't you think you should ask me for permission first?"

"James!" Elizabeth smiled as she held Emily's hand. "Behave!"

James laughed at Lucas, "All right, as soon as she is recovered fully."

"Of course, Dad." Lucas grinned.

James eyed him, "Er, James will do just fine."

"Yes sir."

…..

Six months later….

"Are you ready?" Lucas called out from the house.

"Yes! I can't wait!"

"I can hear the car rolling up!" he said as he rushed to the front door.

She came up and stood next to him, slowly but all the same she was smiling as she looked up at him as Lucas wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "You okay?"

"I'm so nervous!"

A car stopped by the front door.

Lucas opened the door as they stepped out to meet the driver.

"Hello!"

"Hi! They're in the back."

Lucas opened the door and peeked in and smiled, "May I?"

"Oh yes, they're yours now, Mr. North."

He leaned in and removed the one occupant and then passed one to her, and leaned in again and removed another one and stood up and held the second occupant.

"They are beautiful." Lucas exclaimed.

"Let's bring them in. They all want to see them."

Lucas nodded, "Wait…" He leaned in and kissed her deeply, "I love you."

She smiled back at him and said, "I love you too, Lucas."

They walked back into the house.

Harry Pearce, Ruth Evershed and Ros Myers were in the large living room. As were James and Elizabeth Prentiss who came to greet them when they entered the room.

"Oh my! Aren't they just the most gorgeous babies! James, look!" Elizabeth exclaimed as she rushed to picked a baby Lucas was holding. "And who am I holding?"

"This is Evan. Evan James North."Lucas informed her.

James grinned as he walked to Emily who was holding a baby girl.

"And who is this pretty little lady?"

"This is Katherine Elizabeth North." Emily looked over to her mother who was suddenly overcome with tears as she buried her face into the baby's blanket. "Oh, thank you Emily!"

"I think you've rendered your mother speechless for the first time, darling." Lucas whispered to her.

Emily looked at Lucas and grinned, "That's a first."

"They're beautiful babies, Emily." Ruth came over to see them.

"Yes, Emily." Harry nodded his head.

Emily nodded her thanks to them.

Clyde Easter finally made it to the house.

"My word, this is quite a house, Emily!"

"Well, it was my god father's, and we converted it to INTERPOL's safe house but I bought it back and now Lucas and I own it again."

"Nice pad but looks like you guys will need the space." He pointed at the babies. "I see your lovely bundles finally made it."

"Yes, the adoption came through." Lucas smiled as he looked at the sleeping twins and then at Emily with a nod.

"Clyde, Ros," She looked at them. "We would like you to be Katherine's Godparents?"

Clyde nodded, "Of course! I would love to spoil the kid to bits and uh…what else should I do?"

Ros grinned, "Clyde…let me show you what a god father should and should not do." Ros hooked her arm around his elbow and led him to another room as she glanced at Lucas and Emily with a knowing grin.

Emily chuckled as she looked over to Harry and Ruth. "Harry, Ruth, we would like you to be Evan's Godparents."

Harry glanced at Ruth who smiled and nodded. "We'd love to!" She turned to James who handed the baby to Ruth, Harry came to see the baby as he put an arm over her shoulder.

Emily who was leaning against Lucas, "I love it when things come together."

"I do too. But Ros and Clyde? Do you know his reputation with women?"

Emily laughed as she snuggled into his chest, "Don't I know it, but I think Ros can handle Clyde herself pretty well."

Five minutes later, Emily's INTERPOL team came to meet the newest additions as well as Frankie's new baby.

They were greeted warmly by everyone and little Mac was duly passed around to those who had not met her, namely James and Elizabeth.

"My dear," James said to his wife. "There seem to be babies everywhere!" He shook his head.

The Ambassador hooked her arm into her husband's elbow as she looked about her, there were people around her all over the large house, "I know, James, isn't it wonderful? I love this house!"

James nodded as they began to move about them.

Sam and Bob had come over and greeted James and Elizabeth and they all began talking like they were old friends.

Emily and Lucas saw Clyde holding Katherine while the others admired her as he smilingly and happily cooed at the baby, the others laughing at him more so than at the baby.

Harry, in the meantime holding Evan with Ruth grinning at him had looked up and winked at her.

"Harry seemed to like his new role very much, dearest." Lucas remarked as he held her hand.

"Never thought he gets so mushy at the sight of Evan." Emily nodded.

"I think it's your baby he's more biased towards."

She smiled as she leaned close to him as he gathered her tightly. "Our baby, Lucas."

"Yes, babe," he nodded

Not long after, they heard another vehicle pulled up by the drive way.

Emily frowned as she went up the door and looked out, "Are you expecting anyone, hon?"

Lucas gave her a mysterious grin, "Why don't you go out there and find out, babe?"

Emily looked at him, "Lucas? What have you done?" She looked outside and saw, to her surprise…

A very long black limousine pulled up and the whole BAU team began to come out including Jessica, Jack, Will LaMontagne and Henry as well!

Emily gave a loud girlish squeal and rushed outside to greet her former BAU team and their families!

Lucas shook his head as he watched her indulgently when James came to stand next to his son-in-law.

"I don't know how you manage it, Lucas but you've made her very happy." James said as he patted his shoulder.

"She deserved every minute of it, James. I'm only too happy to be able to give her everything and very fortunate she chose me."

James nodded, "She is very lucky, Lucas, to have you to love."

Lucas looked at James and shook his head, "No Dad, I'm the lucky one."

He then bent down and grabbed Sergio from attempting to escape from the madness and chaos that was about to descend the Prentiss-North household!

…

THE END

….

**I want to thank so many people here...especially my beta; Magpie of Silver for your beta skill in cleaning my grammar mess!**

**and to my British pal; lovelyja...i really enjoy our daily chats!**

**to my crazy but enjoyable lunarlycan87, stay strong and keep chatting!**

**emilyhotchnerforever...this story is written for you, i hope you enjoyed the ride all through the whole way!**

**to sleep and dream! Always so passionate, always my champion, as well as my guest reviewer! i hope you get to read this!**

**To all my new reviewers; STORM SA, Sarahb2007, rmpcmfan, Lexis4MorganPrentiss, taylor, GirlonFire, and Guest, and History05, and many more who stuck with this story all the way through...i hope you enjoyed this story as much as i did writing it!**

**Of course, Emily is my favorite CM character of all and although i really miss her in the series, here in the fanfiction world, she is still alive in all of us.**

**and although many Hotch fans are not big Lucas North fans at all, which I am, and I can't put him down yet...sorry everyone...so, i have written another Lucas/Emily pairing story which will be up soon. (oh, i know, don't you guys groan!) just give it a try. It should be up soon. i'll post it here in CM site as well as in MI-5 site, it will have a few more added MI-5 characters in it. please give it a try and let me know. It's called Fallen Angels.**

**And another story with Emily and Mac Taylor of CSI:NY...so far its called New York, New York.**

**thank you!**

**Don't forget...please if you will...leave a last review/comment on this story, let me know what you think of it ! please!**

**J.**


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